I’ve always loved maps, from old-time gas-station road maps to historical maps to maps of imaginary places. As a child, I delighted in preparing maps of places I’d dreamed up for make-believe play, and in my teens that turned into preparing maps for the world of my D&D campaign, ranging from dungeons my players would explore all the way up to the entire world they lived in. And though I rarely draw my own any more, I’m still always excited to find maps which show me something I didn’t know before, or at least didn’t know in sufficient detail. Case in point, the map at right, which some of y’all may recognize as depicting the western half of New Orleans; the part that was important to me is a small detail which those of y’all unfamiliar with New Orleans history may not recognize as interesting without explanation.
Last month I wrote about discovering a guide (including maps) to New Orleans’ extensive streetcar system of the early 20th century. But before the streetcars there were canals, leading from the then-much-smaller city through the swamps to the north, ending in Lake Pontchartrain (which connects to the Gulf of Mexico through a tidal channel named The Rigolets). I always knew about the New Basin Canal because it was not filled in until the 1940s, and in my youth I knew several older folks who remembered it. But in one of those strange oversights which often affect even people with relatively sharp minds, it had never occurred to me to ask where the Old Basin Canal had been! Furthermore, I never realized just how far the New Basin Canal came into the city until I found this map while researching for The Big Boom. If you zoom in you’ll see a straight channel running from the end of Bayou St. John (the wriggly thing just to the right of the map’s centerline), labeled “Carondelet Canal“. That’s what it was officially named from 1794 until the 1830s, when people started calling it the “Old Basin Canal” in contrast with the newly-completed New Basin Canal. If you look at a modern map of New Orleans, you can see a narrow strip of green running from Louis Armstrong Park to the end of the Bayou (very close to where I lived from 2004-2006, incidentally); that’s the former route of the canal, which was filled in by the city in the 1920s after the new Industrial Canal opened in 1923. The famous Basin Street of Storyville fame and jazz legend was named for the turning basin at the terminus, just north of the Vieux Carre.
That was exciting enough, but the part I got really jazzed about (ahem) was realizing that the New Basin Canal went so far into the city. If any of y’all have ever driven on West End Blvd in New Orleans, you’ve probably been impressed with its incredibly wide neutral ground (grassy median); the reason it’s that wide is it’s the filled-in route of the canal. But at the foot of that Boulevard, where it meets I-10 today, the canal once jogged over and continued almost to the river. After the canal was closed in the late 1940s, the Pontchartrain Expressway was built over the route in the 1950s; in the 1960s the expressway became part of I-10. The area of the filled-in turning basin was used by the city for storage until the late ’60s, when it was decided to build the Superdome there. So if you ever drive through New Orleans toward the Superdome on I-10 coming from the direction of the airport, you’re following a transportation corridor which has been there for just short of 200 years, only now on land rather than water.
There is nothing as good for anxiety as feeling supported and cared for! – “Diary #625”
It’s hardly incisive criticism or inspired analysis to point out that children see and enjoy different things in a movie or show than adults do, or that young adults and older adults may enjoy different things about the same show. –
“The Eye of Childhood”
Art cannot exist as handmaiden to politics. This is not to say that art cannot be political; “Guernica” is art. But if the artistic impulse does not precede the political one, the result is mere propaganda. Artists can make political statements, but partisans can’t make art. – “Tweets Aplenty”
Grief, loss, and pain are transmuted [by the brain’s alchemy] into art, much like a compost heap transmutes organic garbage into humus for growing new plants. – “Diary #782“
Age verification is consuming the internet…[and] is about to seep into the offline world…Starting next year, the British government is planning to introduce facial age [guessing software]…to [overrule] the [self-reported] age of asylum seekers…[using the excuse that] many asylum seekers…[do] not have documents proving their age, [so the government can officially]…class…[many legal minors] as adults…strip…[them of] legal protections and [hurl them into] adult-only [concentration camps]…an internal UK government report…shows how the systems regularly mistake [adolescents] for adults…[especially when] deployed against…Sub-Sarahan Africans…[which are typically] off by an average of 4.6 years, meaning that a 13.5-year-old girl could be assessed as an 18-year-old adult…
If you Google “SCP-565” — an iconic entry in the collaborative fan fiction universe known as the “SCP Foundation” — the [so-called “]AI Overviews[“] describes the nonexistent entity as though it were entirely real, without a single acknowledgement that it’s a piece of online horror fiction…Ed’s Head is a made-up “anomaly” among the many fictional “objects, entities, and phenomena” dreamed up by members of the SCP Foundation fandom. As the lore goes, the SCP Foundation is a non-government organization that collects and contains supernatural discoveries. Writers catalogue these fictional phenomena — which range from the terrifying to the downright bizarre — in the form of fake records, studies, research documents, and logs, all of which are indexed in a sprawling archive…[but] Google’s [Chatbot] Overviews…[predictably] present…entities from the expansive SCP universe as real items, events, or beings…We first caught wind of th[is when]…social mediadiscovered that a Google search for “SCP-426” — a fictional toaster that causes anyone talking about the toaster to refer to it in the first person — returns an…Overview in which the [chatbot] discusses the mysterious entity in the first person, as if [it had] itself…been impacted by the toaster’s supernatural effect…
Once again: chatbots are incapable of telling fantasy from reality because they are incapable of understanding that the word fragments (“tokens” in industry jargon) they process correspond to anything outside of the chatbot itself.
It has always been difficult to get help inside federal prison. But in recent years, it has become nearly impossible…The rate at which the bureau granted [relief] has fallen from just under 7% in 2000 to less than 2% in 2023…[the vast majority] are rejected without consideration for the content of their complaint, for arcane reasons such as including too many pages or not filing enough copies…[and] a 1996 federal law requires prisoners to complete the internal grievance process before filing a lawsuit…healthcare-related requests…[a]re the third most common reason for…complaint, behind [dehumanizing living conditions] and [sexual or physical abuse by] staff…Of all medical grievances [clos]ed in 2023, fewer than 1% were granted…state [dungeons typically give slightly more relief, with most]…grant[ing it in] roughly 15% of [cases, though some like]…Texas…[h]over [around] 4%…reasons for rejections [are often ludicrously cruel], like writing with a pencil instead of a pen, or a woman reporting sexual abuse who was rejected for misspelling her abuser’s last name. One…Spanish-speaking prisoner filed a grievance asking for translation services, but was rejected for writing it in Spanish…
Niger’s military junta announced a new penal code that criminalizes…anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual…acts”…What does it mean to punish “acts” that are “asexual”? Does having a platonic relationship constitute an “asexual act” that violates this prohibition? Ghana’s parliament recently criminalized [merely] “identifying” as [LGBT and invented]…a “duty”…to [rat out one’s friends, family, and confidantes to] police…On the other hand, the high court in Namibia…recently struck down laws against gay sex…[as did] Angola in 2021, Gabon in 2020, and…Botswana…[in 2019]…
Bethel [Ohio boss hog] Chad Essert [has been arrested] in Florida after a…grand jury indicted him on 70…sex crime…[charges for repeatedly molesting at least one] minor…from…2005 [to] 2010…Essert…served as an instructor with the Young Marines [at] the time…Essert [fled to Florida]…in May [after being rewarded with a paid vacation for some other unnamed crime]…
For more than two years, a D[anish chatbot]…has been listening to Seattle residents’ 911 medical calls without their knowledge…to [algorithmically determine] which callers don’t deserve a[ctual help, but are instead]…route[d]…to a nurse-staffed Texas call center [with a wait time of several hours. And as is typical for so-called “AI” systems, this is done]…without any disclosure to callers [or] public review…Seattle [bureaucrats describe this as]…a conservative approach [despite]…the…wrongful death of one 911 caller…
Stanford graduates Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal want to solve two hard problems: create a [gewgaw fools will buy] and measure hormones to help [the government track women’s pregnancies]. The pair is building a startup called Clair Health to track inflammation and bloating markers, energy levels, and cycle phase classification to give [government bureaucrats] insights into cycle irregularities and perimenopause, as well as hormonal fluctuations, and how to [target women for violence using] those changes [as justification]. The company has raised $11.6 million in [fascist] funding…and…uses [buzzwords like “]onboarding[“]…[“]AI[“]…[“]biomarkers[“] and…[“]voice stack[” to dazzle marks with bullshit]…Clair Health’s device has 10 biosensors, including a novel biomagnetic sensor for hormonal [surveillance]…of…women [who can get pregnant]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Well, I was wrong about the daisies two years ago, because though there are only a few this year, my allergies still reappeared the night of June 1st and have continued since. Fortunately, I got help last year to figure out a proper over-the-counter meds regimen, so within a week or so I had it mostly under control (though my eyes were still bothering me pretty badly until the latter part of last week); I’ve stopped trying to figure out what exactly is causing it and just resigning myself to this being another reason to dislike summer. Usually, I can start stepping down the meds in August, and be back to normal by September. Alas, “normal” ain’t what it used to be; one of the reasons I’ve stopped trying to figure out what environmental factor I’m allergic to is that I’ve had to recognize that my body is aging rapidly, as I always expected it to. What I mean is, I enjoyed excellent health through my forties and the early part of my fifties, then about four years ago that started to change; I figure the allergies are just a part of the whole constellation of physical ailments that have now become part of my life, including anemia, fatigue, diminished physical strength and flexibility, and increased back pain. Given that the latter is due to five fractured vertebrae incurred in a severe car accident in April 1995, and that I learned to manage it well enough that it was only an occasional problem for the past 30 years, I really can’t complain that is finally returning in the last act; I just have to accept it as another way that my body is not merely suggesting I slow down and take things easier, but rather leaving me no other options.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
The apparent path of the sun reached its northernmost point at 8:24 UTC today, marking the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and the shortest day of the year & first day of winter in the Southern. May all of your plans come to fruition in the fullness of time, and Blessed Be!
Nebraska politicians recently held a bizarrely-anachronistic press conference during which they spouted the kind of “sex trafficking” fantasies which were popular at the height of the hysteria 14 years ago; the panic is so moribund that even a journalist in a largely-rural state feels comfortable calling these politicians liars and debunking a boss hog’s nonsense “statistics”. It took far too long, but it’s still good to see; contrast with “Broken Record” below.
…At least three gay bars in [San Francisco] have started using Patronscan…a [facial recognition system sold as] intended to flag fake IDs…[and] the experience of having a camera turned on every person entering the venues, often without warning, has left many [justifiably] outraged…Management at Mix, Badlands, and Toad Hall [refus]ed to speak to the Gazetteer about the issue, though…the Patronscan website…admits…the [scan] goes beyond simple document checks to…include…third-party checks…[to betray] people [to cops, spooks, and goons]…a…bouncer [also admitted]…facial scans would be stored [indefinitely on a bouncer’s say-so]…The company [justified jumping off a bridge by saying]…more than 700 [other kids have already done it]…But it has already become the subject of…a class-action lawsuit in Illinois…
A European religious freedom group is slamming the prosecution of OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone and former executive Rachel Cherwitz…Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience…has United Nations consultative status, which means it’s accredited by the U.N. to submit written statements and make oral arguments before the U.N. Human Rights Council…prosecutors seemed intent on putting the group’s beliefs and practices on trial…”The legal theory used…marks a major departure from established constitutional principles…The defendants were convicted…based solely on psychological influence, without evidence of threats, violence, or physical coercion.” You can see how this theory might apply to a wide range of religious groups, philosophical movements, political movements, self-improvement programs, health regimens, lifestyle groups, and so on. If the federal statute against human trafficking [can be used thus]…we risk turning all sorts of influence and ordinary business into a crime. All authorities have to do is label something a cult, and voila—any of the group’s instructions, practices, and marketing tactics become sinister…
…ALPR…company Flock exposed the reasons cops conducted searches, and sometimes the specific searched license plates, in common search engines like DuckDuckGo and Bing, according to tests by…the NoCo Privacy Coalition…“Flock appears to be leaking tons of law enforcement vehicle queries and possible user data. Data publicly visible in search result URLs includes: license plate state and numbers, make, model, color, identifiers such as ‘window stickers’ and ‘top rack,’ case number, and more,” the organization said…Flock’s [response was to absurdly belch that] “Protecting customer data is a top priority for Flock” [when their entire business model is to enable cops to conduct unconstitutional warrantless searches]…
Hundreds of millions of Pokémon Go players spent years filming the streets, parks, and buildings around them to earn [make-believe] rewards. Those roughly 30 billion environmental scans are now owned by Niantic Spatial, and [were sold to] train a camera-based navigation model that a [fascist] contractor is preparing to put into drones and other military robots…[so they can] locate…by sight when satellite signals fail…Niantic Spatial CTO Brian McClendon, who previously led the team behind Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View, has said the approach suits robots operating where GPS regularly drops out, such as dense cities, and where signals are deliberately blocked, such as war zones…
Police arrested a man in Florida for attempted child abduction in a town he had never visited, [ignoring all evidence other than a]…facial recognition [false positive]. Represented by the…ACLU…he is now suing the [pig]s and [cop shop]s who put him through it. In November 2023, police in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, responded to a call about an attempted child abduction at a McDonald’s…In August 2024, deputies arrested Dillon at his home in Fort Myers, Florida—hundreds of miles away…More than two months later, prosecutors dropped the charges after his attorney provided evidence that he was at work on the day in question. But [cops ignored]…mobile ordering records, payment data…online account information from McDonald’s…the [fact that the] manager recognized the assailant as a “regular customer”…and…his cell phone’s GPS data, showing…he was…300 miles away…on the night in question…
[Even] sex worker platform[s sometimes buy into ridiculous myths, as demonstrated by the platform] Erobella, [which moronically claims] that…9,000 [European sex workers are “]planning[” travel to North American for the World Cup], while 22,000 others are [“]considering[“] it…[given that] Erobella [claims it] is…committed to combating stigma around sex work, [it seems especially bizarre that it is promoting the nonsensical propaganda]…that major sporting events like the World Cup have historically been really lucrative periods for the sex industry, [given that any sex worker who has ever actually worked during one of these events knows better]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Reporters, please stop saying "pod" to mean "cell block". Imprisoned people are neither whales nor alien body snatchers; they don't come from "pods". Just because the monsters in the US carceral system use euphemisms to hide their evil, doesn't mean you need to parrot them.
People are doing "10 bands you've seen live" on Twitter & it keeps reminding me of Grace, who was a studio musician for years. Once we were at a party where this girl was bragging about getting backstage passes & Grace said to me, "I've *blown* more big name rock stars than she's seen in concert."
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them." – Frank Herbert, "Dune"
It boggled my mind that a restaurant would be named after a dessert. It still does. I mean, nobody goes to "Flan Bell" or "Hand Pie King" or "Spumone Hut".
Crypto-moralists never let little things like facts get in the way of barfing the word "unhealthy" in people's faces every time they do anything more exciting than eating raw vegetables & water once a day after their toil & drudgery, then going to sleep on the floor in an un-climate-controlled room.
"Are we just going to give up and breathe?""Are we just going to give up and eat?""Are we just going to give up and be affected by gravity?""Are we just going to give up and have mass?""Are we just going to give up and emit heat?"This is what you sound like to sane people.
You'd think that after all these decades as an adult, I'd have grown jaded enough to feel something milder than utter contempt for nitwits who believe the entire world of human political thought can be reduced to a single one-dimensional axis. But in actuality, my contempt merely grows more bitter.
If you're a scientist on social media who wants to be accepted as an authority in your field, it's probably a bad idea to claim that a cause can be responsible for "more than 100%" of an observed effect.
"Trump is acting like an authoritarian" = "Einstein is acting like a scientist" = "Streisand is acting like a diva" = "Spielberg is acting like a director" = "Kermit is acting like a Muppet" = "Lassie is acting like a dog" = "Yersinia pestis is acting like a disease organism".
Hey fellow old folks, remember the late '80s, when food companies were trying to cram oat bran into everything because "nutritionists" told the hoi-polloi it had magical life-extension powers?Some things never change.
You know how "I had sex with your dad" has become a way for sex workers to mock squares? Well, I had sex with a lot of people's grandpas. A lot of great-grandpas too.
Fucking a lot of people of both sexes, reading omnivorously, writing A+ essays, running a D&D campaign, hanging out with my friends and predicting the eventual disasters that would result from bad US politics?Yep, checks out.
Can we please stop saying [name of Trumpified institution] to mean "Trump"? Don't tell me "The Pentagon" or "The Department of Justice" or "The Kennedy Center" did something; the management of those places are just sock puppets speaking in Trump's voice, like an evil Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
Doctor Dolittle books. As players rise in levels, they learn more animal languages and gain more animal helpers. Experience is earned by traveling around the world, making friends with animals & with people of different races; by finding unique beings; and by visiting fantastic places like the Moon.
If it looks like a circle jerk, sounds like a circle jerk, smells like a circle jerk, and jerks around like a circle jerk, it's probably a circle jerk.
I’ve always thought [“inflation”] was a serious misnomer, because the problem isn’t really that prices are going up; it’s that the value of the currency is going down. –
“When Ends Don’t Meet”
The one moral concept from my Catholic upbringing which has remained steadfastly lodged in my head is that waste is a sin. – “Throwback Thursdays”
While traditional zombies are objects of horror to be feared, modern “zombies” are objects of loathing, to be exterminated…they…are people it’s OK to hate and even kill without having to worry about their rights, a fantasy outlet for violent impulses. – “Why Zombies?”
Digital computers…are fundamentally unable to think as we understand the concept, regardless of how big or fast they are or how complex the software, because intelligence requires grasping the concept “maybe”, which is excluded by binary data processing. – “Mad Libs (#1546)“
A [typical and representative] NYPD [cop named]…Matthew Lambert [pled guilty to minor charges]…to [escape consequences for raping one woman and sexually harassing others]…In [the rape case], Lambert arrested a woman for [supposed shoplifting and threatened her with jail unless she submitted to rape]…
A surveillance company plans to add sensors to automatic license plate readers…that would [enable] the devices…[to] sweep up unique identifiers of mobile phones, [tech gewgaw]s, and other Bluetooth-enabled devices in those cars…[to let pigs] identify specific drivers or passengers…SignalTrace…would turn ALPR cameras from devices focused on tracking cars to ones that can more readily track the location of particular people…surveillance company Leonardo, which [market]s SignalTrace [to fascist regimes,] says [it] can sweep up…the RFID tags in key cards and pet microchips; devices with Bluetooth such as wireless headphones, fitness trackers, and mobile phones; components of a car like tire pressure sensors and infotainment systems; and Wi-Fi sources such as vehicle hotspots and laptops…
The…FCC…wants to make it effectively impossible for people to buy…burner phones…[in a massive “fuck you”] to domestic abuse survivors…journalists, and many [others. It]…plans to do this by legally forcing the country’s telecoms to store a wealth of personal information about essentially all phone customers…The FCC is [justify]ing the data collection [by barfing the word “]scammers[” in the faces of useful idiots]…But [actual]…criminals…have no trouble creating fake documentation or identities[, so this is clearly aimed at] protest, immigrants, and women…
A German court has ruled that Google is directly liable for what its [so-called “]AI[“] search overviews say. Previous case law shielding search engine operators from liability doesn’t apply to [such] overviews…because the “AI overview” is its own content, not just a list of search results. Google’s…overviews…falsely tied two publishing companies to scams, subscription traps, and shady business practices…[by drawing] connections that didn’t appear in any of the linked sources. The publishers sent Google a cease-and-desist letter, but Google [ignored it. The]…overviews work nothing like traditional search results…[because the computer] rewrites and judges results…”according to its own structure”…In the case at hand, for example, it…[even invented] red flags for the [nonexistent] scam, and tips for users…Google built the [system], Google offered it to users, so Google owns what it [excret]es…
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has issued [ludicrous] cease-and-desist letters to six companies [which are not subject to Alabama law, including one in the UAR, pretending that internet advertising which can be read by]…Alabama residents…is illegal…[and abus]ing Alabama consumer…[protection laws in an attempt to circumvent the First Amendment]…The letters [threaten] each company[, demanding they] immediately stop [women in Alabama from reading their] advertising…[and ord]ering abortion-inducing drugs [from them]…
The US Coast Guard recently announced it has launched an armada of at least six sailing drones in the Great Lakes…to…“track illicit activity”…Saildrone Inc’s Voyager surveillance vessels can operate for 100 days at a time without needing servicing…the[y] can operate for months without refueling and can “track vessels across wide maritime regions”…the drones are equipped with [computer-controlled] radar [and] cameras and…Saildrone…[owns] the surveillance data and [can] sell…it to the government…or [anyone else]…the presence of surveillance sailing drones on the Great Lakes may fuel [the]…accurate narrative among water users…that the waterways have become unsafe [because the government can excuse any violence, no matter how egregious, by simply barfing out the word “]safety” [at the faces of useful idiots]…Saildrone…[has also] announced a $50m [collaboration with] Lockheed Martin to equip its 65-ft unmanned vessels “with lethal, combat-proven [murder weapons]” such as…missile launcher[s]…
People really need to get it into their thick skulls that any form of data collection can be perverted by bad actors such as government; the only way around that is not to collect it at all.
Just days after a damning WIRED report exposed that [Facebook] had quietly embedded facial recognition technology…code into millions of phones, the tech giant has…[temporarily] reverse[d] course…the app’s June 5th…update appears to have quietly removed all those features and systems…this…does not equal a permanent change of heart…and…[Facebook’s] FRT ambitions…aren’t going away…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
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I’ve always loved maps, from old-time gas-station road maps to historical maps to maps of imaginary places. As a child, I delighted in preparing maps of places I’d dreamed up for make-believe play, and in my teens that turned into preparing maps for the world of my D&D campaign, ranging from dungeons my players would explore all the way up to the entire world they lived in. And though I rarely draw my own any more, I’m still always excited to find maps which show me something I didn’t know before, or at least didn’t know in sufficient detail. Case in point, the map at right, which some of y’all may recognize as depicting the western half of New Orleans; the part that was important to me is a small detail which those of y’all unfamiliar with New Orleans history may not recognize as interesting without explanation.
