In a stunning moral inversion, a Democratic speechwriter laments that Holocaust education has backfired. She's outraged that young people learned the "wrong" lesson of opposing powerful groups slaughtering vulnerable populations, and are now applying it to Gaza. The real obscenity, it seems, is not the carnage itself, but the fact that people can see it.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sarah-hurwitz

#usa #uspol #democrats #gaza #genocide

The Internet of Things: A Hall of Shame

I recently saw a post describing a "smart" kettle that required an app or voice command to boil water. The user noted, "I can have tea as long as they have a wifi connection. Welcome to the 21st century."

This is the defining characteristic of modern tech-horror: a device made functionally inferior to its "dumb" ancestor by the addition of a microchip. The failure mode of a normal kettle is a pot; the failure mode of a smart kettle is a brick.

If you think the kettle is bad, here are five devices that prove we have peaked as a species and are now sliding rapidly backward.

1. The $400 Bag Squeezer (The Juicero)

Price: $400 (Launch price: $700) The Superior Alternative: Dieter Rams’ classic Braun Citrus Juicer ($60) or Human Hands ($0).

Juicero was a Wi-Fi-connected cold-press juicer. You bought proprietary bags of chopped fruit, put them in the machine, and it pressed them.

The "Smart" Feature: It read a QR code on the bag to ensure it hadn't expired. If the internet was down or the bag was expired, it would refuse to make juice. It is vital to note that the QR code checked the expiry of the bag, not the actual juice quality.

The Stupid Reality: Bloomberg News revealed that if you just squeezed the bag with your hands, you got the same amount of juice in the same amount of time. It was a $400 rolling pin that required a software update to function.

Furthermore, the machine’s refusal to operate on "expired" bags highlights a fundamental misunderstanding of biology. The main selling point was the ability to bulk-make juice to store. But juice is already pre-stored in nature's perfect packaging: fruit. An unpeeled orange is essentially juice with a shelf-life, contained in a biodegradable wrapper. The Juicero was a subscription service for squeezing a bag, offering less functionality than a mechanically rotated plastic cone from the 1970s.

2. The Bluetooth Salt Shaker (Smalt)

Price: $199 The Superior Alternative: Peugeot Paris u'Select Salt Mill ($45) + JBL Go Speaker ($30) + LED Candle ($10). Total: $85.

"Smalt" is a large plastic centrepiece that holds salt. It looks like an "ergonomically" designed, off-brand Waterpik.

The "Smart" Feature: It has a Bluetooth speaker (because you want your salt to play the soft jazz of Kenny G) and mood lighting, because you want your salt shaker to be a candle too. You can "dispense" salt by pinching a circle on your smartphone screen or asking Alexa to "dispense one teaspoon of salt."

The Stupid Reality: It requires batteries and a firmware connection to use gravity. The dispensing mechanism is a study in anti-ergonomics. To use the app, you must hold the heavy dispenser over your food with one hand. You must hold your phone with the other. However, a "pinch" gesture requires two fingers on the screen. Unless you place the phone on the table—taking your eyes off the food—or have a prehensile tail, the geometry of seasoning your soup is ridiculous.

Alternatively, you can talk to it. Because nothing kills the vibe of a dinner party faster than shouting commands at your table setting. This is objectively less functional than an electric button-mill (one thumb), a manual mill (two hands, one action), or the pinnacle of culinary interface design: putting your fingers in a bowl of salt.

#InternetOfThings #IoT #TechFail #Enshittification #SmartHome #TechCritique #Smarter #iKettle #RightToRepair #TechHorror #CloudFail #Abandonware

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In a way Trump and Mamdani are similar. They are both populists fighting against the elite, it's just who they see as "the elite" differs.

Mamdani sees the elite as the billionaires who control the economic, political, and social systems of society.

Trump sees the elite as people who read books.

Zohran Mamdani marched into the Oval Office and, without blinking, made clear that the Israeli government is committing genocide with funding from the U.S. Government. He said while standing next to Donald Trump, moments after calling him a fascist, and staying unwaveringly committed to his message of affordability for all New Yorkers.

How Zohran campaigned is how he's leading as Mayor Elect. This is how you build trust. This is how you build movements committed to justice.

This is the way.

Latest comic: Climate Silence

#climate #climatechange #cop30 #media #journalism #uspol #oligarchy #climatecrisis