I've been neglecting my Substack folks while I go through papers and proposals, but I'm done for the night. The last paper I read had to do with "beauty algorithms" on Tiktok and their impacts on the Tiktok environment and on society more broadly. A pretty good piece of sleuthing, I thought, and a successful bit of work that the student did. "Beauty scores" are indeed a thing, though I think the Spice Girls probably don't really figure in much, except in half-jest, like on HowNormalAmI.eu.
I am, alas, old and saggy, though perhaps not as saggy as many my age. The website underestimated my age by 7 years! So there's that. But that still ranks me as nearing Crypt Keeper vintage.
Did you visit the website? It's amusing and informative.
I do need to shoot you an email on Baldwin. I have been distracted by the piles of paper this week. That was a masterful post, Jillian.
Love the idea that an old-style thermostat “watches” the room--so normal and so easy to invite a modern gadget that performs the same function into your home. But how do we get it to stop gathering data, and how to we even know all that it gathers? Nice way to pose these issues Mark.
Actually, there is a way to get Google out of the loop. My son-in-law in Denver has used an open source project for home automation and security to do it. I can't recall the name of the project, but I bet it's something like "open smarthome" or similar. There are DIY sensors and stuff. The problem for many is that you have t be somewhat knowledgeable about coding, since configuration is a bit of a task. As I recall he has Google Nest thermostats, but I don't know that they're closely tied with Google after being brought into the open source system.
BTW, our little fish Guy Noir now has friends in his aquarium. Bond Girl Bride brought him in from the cold aquarium outside. He was the runt of the bunch and seemed to live a little in peril. But he was lonely, and so we brought in some friends. BGB said that he actually responded to the new fish in an excited way. Maybe there's somethign going on in fish brains.
Fascinating that the spice girls remain the beauty standard. Also, congrats on being so good looking!
I've been neglecting my Substack folks while I go through papers and proposals, but I'm done for the night. The last paper I read had to do with "beauty algorithms" on Tiktok and their impacts on the Tiktok environment and on society more broadly. A pretty good piece of sleuthing, I thought, and a successful bit of work that the student did. "Beauty scores" are indeed a thing, though I think the Spice Girls probably don't really figure in much, except in half-jest, like on HowNormalAmI.eu.
I am, alas, old and saggy, though perhaps not as saggy as many my age. The website underestimated my age by 7 years! So there's that. But that still ranks me as nearing Crypt Keeper vintage.
Did you visit the website? It's amusing and informative.
I do need to shoot you an email on Baldwin. I have been distracted by the piles of paper this week. That was a masterful post, Jillian.
Love the idea that an old-style thermostat “watches” the room--so normal and so easy to invite a modern gadget that performs the same function into your home. But how do we get it to stop gathering data, and how to we even know all that it gathers? Nice way to pose these issues Mark.
Actually, there is a way to get Google out of the loop. My son-in-law in Denver has used an open source project for home automation and security to do it. I can't recall the name of the project, but I bet it's something like "open smarthome" or similar. There are DIY sensors and stuff. The problem for many is that you have t be somewhat knowledgeable about coding, since configuration is a bit of a task. As I recall he has Google Nest thermostats, but I don't know that they're closely tied with Google after being brought into the open source system.
BTW, our little fish Guy Noir now has friends in his aquarium. Bond Girl Bride brought him in from the cold aquarium outside. He was the runt of the bunch and seemed to live a little in peril. But he was lonely, and so we brought in some friends. BGB said that he actually responded to the new fish in an excited way. Maybe there's somethign going on in fish brains.