jwz

Noah Hawley:

This is different from classic narcissism, in which a grandiose but fragile self-image can mask deep insecurity. What I'm talking about is a self-definition in which the individual grows to the size of the universe, and the universe vanishes. [...]

Decades of research in developmental psychology have shown that moral reasoning develops through consequences -- not punishment, necessarily, but experiencing the effects of your actions on others, receiving honest feedback, having to accommodate reality as it actually is rather than as you wish it to be. It's not that the wealthy become evil; it's that their environment stops teaching them the things that nonwealthy people are forced to learn simply by living in a world that pushes back. When you can buy your way out of any mistake, when you can fire anyone who disagrees with you, when your social circle consists entirely of people who need something from you, the basic mechanism by which humans learn that other people are real goes dark.

When Peter Thiel said, "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible," he wasn't talking about your freedom. He was talking about his own. You don't exist.

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Speaking of our neighbors... Hey, remember that hideous flashbulb of an office building they built across the street from us in 2019? How's that going? Still walled up with plywood and sitting 100% vacant after 7 years? Blank wall covered with graffiti and posters rather than that "ground-floor commercial" we were promised? Emergency lights still strobing all night long?

Good, good...

I guess the matryoshka doll of shell companies begins with 340-350 11th Street LLC. The realtor on that sign does not acknowledge it existing. Zillow has a listing for it, which might be entirely fiction, but it does have this banger of a photo of the property that they lifted from street view. What's not to love!

City prosecutor Marcus McDowell said it wasn't a free speech case but argued "no one has a Constitutional right to dress up as an erect penis and stand on the side of the road."

He called Gamble's husband as a witness to testify that he had withdrawn bail money before they attended the protest, as if she knew she was going to break the law in advance.

"I always make sure we got bail money on us," Larry Fletcher responded, to laughter from the gallery. "I have bail money on me now. Whenever there are this many cops around I have bail money on me."

There were no fewer than 16 uniformed police officers standing around the perimeter of the courtroom. [...]

Outside the courtroom, Mary Kay Smith was dressed up in an eggplant costume waving a "NO KINGS - NO DICK-TATORS" sign. "I am here for the Constitution," she said. "The arrest was violent, abusive and uncalled for. It was not even civilized behavior."

Shelly Welch was standing alongside Smith, with a sign depicting a half-peeled banana with a bite taken. "FREE SPEECH SHOULDN'T BE HARD TO SWALLOW," it read.

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At Long Last, InfoWars Is Ours:

Imagine a roaring arena packed to the rafters with pathological liars. High above you in the nosebleeds are podcasters, screaming that you'll die if you don't buy their skincare products. Below, on the floor, imagine demonic battalions of super-influencers physically forcing people into home fitness devices designed to dismantle their bodies bone by bone and reassemble them into a grotesque statue of yourself. Out of the throngs, an extremely sick looking man approaches you. He puts his hands on your shoulders. He explains that he is your life coach and that you owe him $800.

Such is the InfoWars I envision: An infinite virtual surface teeming with ads. Not just ads, but scams! Not just scams, but lies with no object, free radical misinformation, sentences and images so poorly thought out that they are unhealthy even to view for just a few seconds. The InfoWars of old was only the prototype for the hell I know we can build together: A digital platform where, every day, visitors sacrifice themselves at altars of delusion and misery, their minds fully disintegrating on contact.

Previously, previously.

After two years of failed attempts at relocation and sterilization, Colombia's government has decided it will euthanize 80 of the at least 169 "cocaine hippos" that were once owned by notorious drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.

"Without this action it is impossible to control them," said Colombia's environment minister Irene Vélez at a press conference on Monday. Citing estimates that the population could reach at least 500 individuals by 2030, "affecting our ecosystems and native species," she added that "it is our responsibility to take this action." [...]

In 2022 the government launched a sterilization program to slow reproduction of the hippos, which could number up to 200 individuals. At the same time, officials opened talks with seven countries and two international zoo and aquarium associations to relocate the animals. To date, no country has agreed to take even a single hippo, according to the Colombian government, which ultimately led its Ministry of Environment to opt for euthanasia.

Widespread sterilization is not a viable option because it is a "cumbersome, costly and dangerous procedure that progresses at a very slow pace," says Jorge Moreno Bernal, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of the North in Barranquilla, Colombia. A single sterilization requires cranes and puts human lives at risk, he says. "It is not like sterilizing a dog or a cat."

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Three sentenced for 'man in bear suit' insurance scam

Viral video handed to insurers as evidence seemed to show a bear in a 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost in Lake Arrowhead on 28 January 2024. Similar claims were filed on the same date and location for two high-end Mercedes models. But biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reviewed the footage and determined it showed a human in a bear suit.

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'How Could You Be Against Joy?': Bay Area Artists Are Turning on the Civic Joy Fund:

Crypto billionaire Larsen -- who is currently spending tens of millions of dollars to prop up moderate candidates in California, fight labor unions, defeat the state billionaires tax and San Francisco's own overpaid CEO tax -- is still one of the Civic Joy Fund's biggest benefactors. This is reflected on the organization's own "funders" page, which lists cute categories for these very wealthy people, like "Disco Queens," "Street Sparklers," and "Joy Makers." [...]

In February, at the "Music Industry Summit" -- the conclusion to San Francisco Music Week, another Lurie project -- I watched as the mayor strode to the stage at the Swedish American Music Hall. There, before an audience of struggling artists, engineers, and small venue staff, he triumphantly reported that the last summer of concerts in Golden Gate Park resulted in "$150 million worth of economic impact," and that, according to new data, "our independent music venues generate $1.4 billion in economic impact annually."

Lurie paused for applause. "That's because of all of you in this room."

We clapped dutifully, but the people in that room did not need to be reassured that they had contributed to $1.4 billion in "economic impact." They would have preferred to hear that any of their favorite clubs might exist next year. The people in that room could use health insurance -- and they might be able to afford it if Lurie's billionaire buddies were taxed appropriately; say, with a one-time 5% excise tax on net worth exceeding $1 billion to save Medi-Cal.

But hey, that sentiment doesn't make for great social media content.

Indeed, the dissonance between Lurie's spirit-squad act around cultural events and the material struggles of the people actually making the culture is, at times, ear-splitting. One gets the sense he is physically unable to hear it.

"Those of us on the ground who work in [music] know that it has never been more difficult to be here, and try and provide the city with the core thing it is known for historically, which is free-thinking progressive ideologies and good art," says Austin Waz, frontman of the band Analog Dog and a booker at Kilowatt. "We see the incredible amount of venues going out of business, people losing their jobs left and right. We have an absolute crisis."

It's frustrating, he says, to see the large-scale parties into which the Civic Joy Fund pours resources. "It's one day, and they put $100,000, $200,000 into these things, and it's like -- you could have saved an entire community with that. You could have created the conditions that would allow a venue to flourish for years," says Waz. "You're not thinking about how to develop or support artists who come from the city ... it's a slap in the face to put up some [barricades] in the street and say, 'Look how wonderful this all is.'" [...]

"I'm hearing artists rightfully starting to question, like, 'Ultimately, who is this for?'" says Guest of the block parties. "Is it for the public, or is it to set up this area as being worthy of real estate investment? Because if the point of it is to cater towards visitors ... it's really not about supporting art or artists at all."

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The Composograph image above is illustrating the 1926 Peaches and Daddy Browning scandal, in which 15-year-old actress Frances "Peaches" Heenan married, and then swiftly tried to divorce, 51-year-old real estate developer Edward West "Daddy" Browning. The Evening Graphic's coverage included allegations that Daddy kept a live goose in their bedroom.

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There don't seem to be any photos of this guy, so I guess the press is just gonna finger this presumably-innocent Santa. But is any Santa truly innocent? SantaCon promoter arrested for charity fraud:

Stefan Pildes [...] allegedly diverted funds from the event to a "slush fund" to pay for extensive renovations to a lakefront property in New Jersey, luxury vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Vail, Colorado, concert tickets, extravagant meals, and a luxury vehicle, prosecutors said.

About $124,000 of the SantaCon funds were spent toward leasing a luxury apartment in Manhattan, and another $100,000 was invested in a boutique resort in Costa Rica founded by a friend of Pildes, the indictment said. [...]

"More than a third of the organization's total giving during that period went to groups or individuals who appear connected to Burning Man, the annual weeklong festival in Nevada, including organizations devoted to hula hooping, dance parades, free costumes and more," Gothamist reported. [...]

In 2018, Participatory Safety "lost $17,498 worth of investments it made in cryptocurrencies -- equal to about a third of its charitable giving that year," Gothamist reported. "More than $832,000 of the money raised from SantaCon programming -- or 59% -- went to the nonprofit's expenses, not including its charitable grants."

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SAN FRANCISCO:

"I've been using ChatGPT to help with cooking for a while now, so I didn't think too much of it when the ingredients list included a bottle filled with gasoline and a cloth wick," said the alleged attacker, who added that he naturally assumed making the rice dish involved driving several hours to the OpenAI CEO's residence, especially after the AI chatbot had given him a "pretty decent" sesame chicken recipe the week before.

"I have to admit I felt a little weird as I prepared to toss this flaming incendiary device through [Altman's] front window, but the recipe explicitly stated that this was an essential step to get that creamy, velvety risotto texture. I guess I didn't know any better. I mean, I've never made risotto before."

The suspect went on to tell reporters that he still had "a whole fridge full" of Molotov cocktails at home, having attempted to prep enough risotto to last the week.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.