Artificial intelligence is not that intelligent. – Ella Dawson
Dirty Amateurs
Why are amateurs so damned averse to using condoms?
…Calmara claims to use AI to screen photos uploaded by users for STIs. They want you to open their website, take a picture of your partner’s genitals before having sex, and upload it to their database so that a…[computer] can review it and scan for 10+ “conditions” including herpes, syphilis, and HPV. Buried in the Q&A section…Calmara makes it clear-ish that they cannot actually diagnose anyone with any STI, the AI only “works” for penises, and you should really just go to a doctor for an accurate STI test. But you wouldn’t glean any of that from their cocky Instagram or glossy imagery. “No cap, just facts,” the copy reads beneath an illustration of a dancing robot. “Up to 90% accuracy, our AI is grounded in real science.” Uh… sure…the service is so misguided that it’s easy to dismiss it as satire. But…Calmara is…not satire, and available to download right now…their…own fine print says, “These offerings should not be used as substitutes for professional medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or management of any disease or condition.” So what is this service for? Literally why does it exist when it cannot provide the service it advertises?…
Moral Climate
Never make the mistake of thinking the current zeal for library censorship is limited to either the US or the so-called “right wing”:
Cathy Simpson, the CEO of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library, [h]as [been] fired…[because the board dislikes a group she quoted in] an op-ed column published by The Lake Report. The Feb. 22 opinion piece, “Censorship and what we are allowed to read”…drew strong criticism from a few…over its promotion of some of the principles espoused by the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR)…[regarding] “hidden library censorship,” which she said takes two forms — “the vigorous defence of books promoting diversity of identity, but little to no defence of books promoting diversity of viewpoint, and the purchase of books promoting ‘progressive’ ideas over ‘traditional’ ideas”…[library board chair Daryl Novak tacitly admitted that Simpson was fired purely due to the] content related to FAIR, [because] “the balance of (Simpson’s) article, you can’t really criticize”…
Censorship Ascendant 
Censors are now pretending ideas they don’t like constitute a “crime”:
Police Scotland…will in[timid]ate actors and comedians if a…[wannabe censor points at them and croaks the magic words] “threatening and abusive” [because] under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) [Law, the taboo magic] can be communicated “through public performance of a play”…the Assistant Chief Constable responsible for overseeing the implementation of the controversial legislation has [washed his hands of it] after just a year in the post…Police Scotland has [threaten]ed that it will investigate every [incident, no matter how trivial, reported as a “]hate crime[“]…despite the force adopting a “proportionate response” approach to [actual] crimes…there [h]as [been] an outcry from artists…[pointing out] that in the past shows ha[ve] been picketed by organisations trying to get them shut down and warn[ing] that “putting theatre in its own category makes it a target”…
I Can’t Breathe (#1329)
It’s about time cops stopped being allowed to cover up their murders so easily:
The Colorado Senate [has] pass[ed] legislation that would bar the term “excited delirium” from use by [cops and medical examiners. If signed by]…Governor Jared Polis…it would bar the term [or any of its synonyms] from being used in [cop] training or incident reports, or from being listed as a cause of death on a death certificate…Prominent medical organizations have urged [cops and medical] professionals to not use the [pseudoscientific] term…[whose sole purpose is] to justify injury or death to individuals [attacked and restrained by] police…
Thought Control (#1345) 
Some censors are so mentally ill they feel threatened by the sexuality of trees:
The Floyd County (Va.) Public Schools have suspended a…community reading of Katherine Applegate’s Wishtree following complaints that the middle-grade novel depicts a monoecious red oak, a tree with reproductive parts that can pollinate and flower simultaneously. In the book, originally published in 2017, the tree claims an identity that is “both” female and male and responds to diverse pronouns: “Call me she. Call me he. Anything will work”…[wannabe censor] Jodi Farmer…took to Facebook to [warn] Floyd County residents about the [terrifying] reference to…[vegetable biology], calling the book “indoctrination at its finest”…
Apparently, Farmer imagines these scary, scary words will bewitch her children into transkingdomism.
The Next Target (#1371)
Rather than actually filing a lawsuit against Mastercard for its discriminatory policies against sex workers (which would cost them actual money), ACLU prefers to Tweet, to dilly-dally with complaints to the FTC (a bureau of a government which actively persecutes sex workers and encourages corporations to do the same), and now to file a petition which I can’t imagine will prove to be any more effective than its other slacktivist efforts. Given the wording of the petition and the website page it’s included in, this seems more like an exercise in virtue-signaling than an actual effort to right an injustice, but I reckon it can’t actually hurt you to sign it.
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1417)
Tennessee’s float in the current “monkey see, monkey do” parade will cost it millions every year:
A Tennessee bill would make it a felony for an adult content website to allow access to a minor without age verification…[bill sponsor] Becky Massey…[burbled a lot of nonsense about magic sex-ray emitting pictures, but didn’t publicize that her exercise in morality theater] will cost the state more than $4 million in the first year and then $2 million each year after that…
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Now that I’m (basically) done with getting my house the way I want it, living within my means has become easier most of the year, except in April, which many rulers apparently think is the best time for extracting tribute via collectivist rhetoric backed by threats of organized violence. April 15th is of course the deadline for paying US income taxes, and because the US tax code was deliberately designed to be opaque and confusing, I’m never sure what the damage is going to be until my accountant sends the dreaded envelope. In about 40% of years it’s dramatically higher than I expect, which is understandably upsetting; this was one of those years. But that’s not the end of it, oh no; though the deadline for paying the first half of annual property taxes could be anytime between January and June (Oklahoma’s was June), Washington seems to think the very best time is a mere two weeks after the feds demand theirs. And so every year both my business and household accounts are heavily bled in rapid succession, and it usually takes until the beginning of summer to get my depleted coffers back to a level that wouldn’t be entirely wiped out by one garden-variety disaster.
