Where is the money going?
1) Saw episode 5 of Hawkeye and found it intriguing. For one thing, it was fascinating to see what the Blip was like from Yelena's POV (and it confirmed that Natasha didn't follow up on her because she wasn't there). It was fun to see her discussion with Kate, both because they are the next gen Hawkeye and Widow, and also because Florence Pugh is so great as Yelena, she takes over most scenes she's in. But it is curious that she seems to be so quickly protective of Kate given what very different backgrounds each has. As the final scene makes clear, Kate comes from the strata of society that uses people like Yelena, and not in a positive way.
The track suit gang is definitely among the most amusing baddies I've seen in Marvel. The conversation in the truck made me snort. The scene with Clint ambushing all his waiting ambushers was also neat, as was Kate's surprise appearance with some backup.
I suspect that conversation Clint had with Maya is going to reappear with Yelena. Her mission to free the former Widows seems to have been going pretty well, but the question is really "what then"? Her rescuee points out that assassination is all most of them know, so their lives will often not be effectively different. But it was interesting to discover the potential effects of the Blip on her - she has gotten married and adopted a child. It makes one think of the many orphans who must have been left behind and in need of new families. However she seems awfully calm about explaining the Blip to Yelena given that, presumably, no one else in the world knew what the Avengers were up to and people's return had to be even more chaotic than their disappearance.
I'm also waiting to see how Madame Hydra's conversation with Yelena is going to come into play here.
Clint was overshadowed in this episode but I did like his conversation with Laura and the way she offered him support. It gave us a little insight into what their lives must have been like for the last 15 years. Plus there was his journey to a memorial of Natasha where he made the subtext text.
This was another episode that went by quickly to me, and I'm looking forward to what happens next!
2) I always enjoy seeing the
100fandomicons challenge results. So many different fandoms to pick out and some fun choices for the prompts!
3) Following up again on the issue of feeds, the community
dw_feed_promo exists both to promote any feeds you start as well as to find out what's been added. It hasn't been very active but the most recent posts there give a good insight into how much interesting stuff can be subscribed to.
4) I thought that this article meandered rather too much, especially in the sections detailing what we'd consider medical quackery, but there were some interesting bits about mitochondrial function and what sorts of energy we can measure. It seemed to me that a lot of the low energy issues the author has weren't a big mystery to explain, though how widespread they may be is eye opening:
"[A] University of North Carolina study that found that eighty-eight per cent of Americans suffer from some metabolic malfunction. “That means that roughly one in ten of us is able to process energy the way our bodies are designed to,” she said. “It’s an epidemic. Our fundamental pathways have been hijacked by the Western diet and life style. Disordered blood sugar is a big driver of most inflammation and chronic disease. It’s not just diabetes.”"
This may be because of mitochondrial disruption: "Steven Gundry, the well-known California cardiologist, describes “mitochondrial gridlock,” the overwhelming of these organelles with too much to do-too much junk. Gundry enumerates seven “deadly” energy disrupters: antibiotics, glyphosate (the main active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup), other environmental chemicals, overused pharmaceuticals, fructose, bad light, and electromagnetic fields. "
This may connect to issues with low REM sleep which seems to be another major problem area: "Ahmed himself always eats early and avoids sugar and alcohol in the evening. He wears blue-light-blocking glasses when, as he must, he uses his phone late…and uses blackout shades and an eye mask, aiming for more than five hours of REM and deep sleep a night. “I have never met someone who gets that much who isn’t leading a great life,” he said."
But what is the most fascinating is the bit the article closes with. Wearing 3 different energy/activity monitors, the author discovers they have measured high activity levels…due to a great visit with a friend.
"The readout from our meander suggested that I’d undergone my most gruelling physical trial not only since I got the device but in many years, possibly decades. It had me at nearly fifty minutes with an average heart rate above a hundred and fifty, plus twelve minutes above one-sixty-seven, with a high of one-eighty-five…My friend and I had had an excellent rapport on our stroll-a surge of groovy vibes and hearty laughter. Could this energy, the kind that is projected, perceived, and exchanged, yet purportedly impossible to measure, have somehow spun the monitor’s compass"
It would certainly explain why the advice to so many people who want to stay mentally clear and healthy is to develop strong social connections, particularly as they age. This has always been suggested as a form of mental health support but as we learn more and more about how mind and body are linked, this may be an incomplete assumption.
5) One of the less well-understood inputs into these algorithms is keyword blocklists. "These are lists of words that the ad tech industry uses to exclude advertising from running on particular news stories…programmatic ads can be excluded from news stories that include words such as “Trump” or “Biden,” as well as “Black,” “Hispanic,” “Asian,” “gay,” or “lesbian.”
The result is that much of the advertising inventory on news sites is deemed brand-unsafe. A significant share of the ad inventory of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times falls into this category. For sites serving Black or gay communities, 70% of the ad inventory can be excluded because so many of their stories include words that keyword blocklists have deemed too risky for ads."
Also, because "algorithms don’t differentiate between misinformation sites and quality publishers" Comscore estimates "that $2.6 billion worth of online ads from blue-chip companies annually run on sites that advertisers never intended." This money is supporting the misinformation industry and it's because it's so much cheaper to have automated ad placement as opposed to human selection.
View poll: Kudos Footer-333
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
The track suit gang is definitely among the most amusing baddies I've seen in Marvel. The conversation in the truck made me snort. The scene with Clint ambushing all his waiting ambushers was also neat, as was Kate's surprise appearance with some backup.
I suspect that conversation Clint had with Maya is going to reappear with Yelena. Her mission to free the former Widows seems to have been going pretty well, but the question is really "what then"? Her rescuee points out that assassination is all most of them know, so their lives will often not be effectively different. But it was interesting to discover the potential effects of the Blip on her - she has gotten married and adopted a child. It makes one think of the many orphans who must have been left behind and in need of new families. However she seems awfully calm about explaining the Blip to Yelena given that, presumably, no one else in the world knew what the Avengers were up to and people's return had to be even more chaotic than their disappearance.
I'm also waiting to see how Madame Hydra's conversation with Yelena is going to come into play here.
Clint was overshadowed in this episode but I did like his conversation with Laura and the way she offered him support. It gave us a little insight into what their lives must have been like for the last 15 years. Plus there was his journey to a memorial of Natasha where he made the subtext text.
This was another episode that went by quickly to me, and I'm looking forward to what happens next!
2) I always enjoy seeing the
100fandomicons challenge results. So many different fandoms to pick out and some fun choices for the prompts!
3) Following up again on the issue of feeds, the community
dw_feed_promo exists both to promote any feeds you start as well as to find out what's been added. It hasn't been very active but the most recent posts there give a good insight into how much interesting stuff can be subscribed to.
4) I thought that this article meandered rather too much, especially in the sections detailing what we'd consider medical quackery, but there were some interesting bits about mitochondrial function and what sorts of energy we can measure. It seemed to me that a lot of the low energy issues the author has weren't a big mystery to explain, though how widespread they may be is eye opening:
"[A] University of North Carolina study that found that eighty-eight per cent of Americans suffer from some metabolic malfunction. “That means that roughly one in ten of us is able to process energy the way our bodies are designed to,” she said. “It’s an epidemic. Our fundamental pathways have been hijacked by the Western diet and life style. Disordered blood sugar is a big driver of most inflammation and chronic disease. It’s not just diabetes.”"
This may be because of mitochondrial disruption: "Steven Gundry, the well-known California cardiologist, describes “mitochondrial gridlock,” the overwhelming of these organelles with too much to do-too much junk. Gundry enumerates seven “deadly” energy disrupters: antibiotics, glyphosate (the main active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup), other environmental chemicals, overused pharmaceuticals, fructose, bad light, and electromagnetic fields. "
This may connect to issues with low REM sleep which seems to be another major problem area: "Ahmed himself always eats early and avoids sugar and alcohol in the evening. He wears blue-light-blocking glasses when, as he must, he uses his phone late…and uses blackout shades and an eye mask, aiming for more than five hours of REM and deep sleep a night. “I have never met someone who gets that much who isn’t leading a great life,” he said."
But what is the most fascinating is the bit the article closes with. Wearing 3 different energy/activity monitors, the author discovers they have measured high activity levels…due to a great visit with a friend.
"The readout from our meander suggested that I’d undergone my most gruelling physical trial not only since I got the device but in many years, possibly decades. It had me at nearly fifty minutes with an average heart rate above a hundred and fifty, plus twelve minutes above one-sixty-seven, with a high of one-eighty-five…My friend and I had had an excellent rapport on our stroll-a surge of groovy vibes and hearty laughter. Could this energy, the kind that is projected, perceived, and exchanged, yet purportedly impossible to measure, have somehow spun the monitor’s compass"
It would certainly explain why the advice to so many people who want to stay mentally clear and healthy is to develop strong social connections, particularly as they age. This has always been suggested as a form of mental health support but as we learn more and more about how mind and body are linked, this may be an incomplete assumption.
5) One of the less well-understood inputs into these algorithms is keyword blocklists. "These are lists of words that the ad tech industry uses to exclude advertising from running on particular news stories…programmatic ads can be excluded from news stories that include words such as “Trump” or “Biden,” as well as “Black,” “Hispanic,” “Asian,” “gay,” or “lesbian.”
The result is that much of the advertising inventory on news sites is deemed brand-unsafe. A significant share of the ad inventory of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times falls into this category. For sites serving Black or gay communities, 70% of the ad inventory can be excluded because so many of their stories include words that keyword blocklists have deemed too risky for ads."
Also, because "algorithms don’t differentiate between misinformation sites and quality publishers" Comscore estimates "that $2.6 billion worth of online ads from blue-chip companies annually run on sites that advertisers never intended." This money is supporting the misinformation industry and it's because it's so much cheaper to have automated ad placement as opposed to human selection.
View poll: Kudos Footer-333
Comments at Dreamwidth
.