Althouse

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• Ketanji Brown Jackson loves "Survivor" — calls it "the best show ever."
• "The voice who had been with her longest warned of catastrophes coming for her family in Zionsville, a town north of Indianapolis, calamities tied in some unspecified way to..."
• "The F.D.A. said it expected Abbott to restart [infant formula] production in about two weeks... at the plant in Sturgis, Mich."
• At the Sunrise Café...
• "Personal essays that don’t make an argument are generally not op-eds."
• "Behavioral economists and psychologists have, in recent years, shown employers that there’s a business case for their fixation on positivity."
• For the annals of Things You're Not Going to Do.
• "In recent years, a growing number of medical and public health groups have introduced public awareness campaigns warning people to drink with caution, noting that alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer, behind tobacco and obesity."
• This is great: SNL parodied the show we've been watching.
• "A gunman killed one person and wounded five others at a Taiwanese luncheon in a Laguna Woods church on Sunday, then was tackled by churchgoers who hogtied his legs with extension cords..."
• "The Woman Wondering If She’s Bisexual Enough to Come Out."
• At the Sunrise Café...
• "Supporters of debt forgiveness argue that targeted relief is inadequate and that broader relief would help to close the [racial wealth] gap."
• "I live in Los Angeles. Everyday I witness filth and disease laden encampments. What I see with my own eyes are people living in squalor..."
• A sunrise, presented at midday, to keep your spirits up.
• Just 3 TikToks to tide you over. I was highly selective! Let me know what you liked best.
• Let's work together.
• Sentence of the Day.
• If there's "no doubt," why are you calling it an "alleged manifesto"?
• "Now, after the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, entrepreneurs and activists are floating ideas for an abortion-focused DAO."
• "Finland is applying for NATO membership. A protected Finland is being born as part of a stable, strong and responsible Nordic region."
• Elon Musk tells us how to "fix" our Twitter feed.
• Sunrise series.
• "Every generation has had an apocalyptic view of their lives... We’re not wired to save.... We’re wired to consume."
• "TikTok has no interest in your friends. Instead, it has developed an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that divines your desires..."

Ketanji Brown Jackson loves "Survivor" — calls it "the best show ever." Posted: 17 May 2022 06:00 AM PDT Why? — asks the Washington Post interviewer.  Answer: Because it's like a social experiment. It's human nature, what do people do when they're starving and how do they react to one another? It's like this Hobbesian state of nature: How are we going to deal with this situation? I love it. It really isn't a Hobbesian state of nature, though. If it were a Hobbesian state of nature, the tribes wouldn't be taking votes and eliminating competitors one by one in a strategic way with notion that one person would win a pile of money to take back when the game ends after a known, set number of days. If it were a Hobbesian state of nature, one tribe could raid another and kill them all, and you'd want to keep the best competitors to around to help you as the game of survival would go on until you reached the only exit possible: death. There would be no bags of rice to tide you over, no sudden infusion of Applebee's calories. There would be bloody violence and no medical personnel to swoop in. There would be rape. And babies. But it's my favorite TV show too. It's a wonderful game that shows something about how people attempt to find order within a group as they pursue an utterly selfish goal. But I would think a judge would see how much law there is. (I'm not really knocking the judge. I'm sure that she realizes all the things I've said here and that if I were talking to her in person about "Survivor," we'd have a great conversation. And then she'd plot to vote me off the island.)

"The voice who had been with her longest warned of catastrophes coming for her family in Zionsville, a town north of Indianapolis, calamities tied in some unspecified way to..." Posted: 17 May 2022 05:00 AM PDT "... TV images from the gulf war: fighter planes, flashes in the sky, explosions on the ground, luminous and all-consuming. A woman's voice castigated her at school, telling her that her clothes smelled and that she had better keep her hand down, no matter that she knew the answers to the teacher's questions. Another voice tracked her every move, its tone faintly mocking. 'She's getting out of bed now; oh, she's walking down the hall now.'..." From "Doctors Gave Her Antipsychotics. She Decided to Live With Her Voices. A new movement wants to shift mainstream thinking away from medication and toward greater acceptance" Daniel Bergner (NYT)(adapted from the book "The Mind and the Moon: My Brother's Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our Psyches").  [Caroline Mazel-Carlton] began leading Hearing Voices Network support groups — which are somewhat akin to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — for people with auditory and visual hallucinations. The groups, with no clinicians in the room, gathered on secondhand chairs and sofas in humble spaces rented by the alliance. What psychiatry terms psychosis, the Hearing Voices Movement refers to as nonconsensus realities, and a bedrock faith of the movement is that filling a room with talk of phantasms will not infuse them with more vivid life or grant them more unshakable power. Instead, partly by lifting the pressure of secrecy and diminishing the feeling of deviance, the talk will loosen the hold of hallucinations and, crucially, the grip of isolation....  At the outset, Mazel-Carlton invited everyone to open up by reminding: "This is where I can go if I have direct experiences of the divine. It's a place I can go, if I'm someone with a psychiatric label, to talk about spirituality without having my experience pathologized. We validate one another here."  A man described being rocked and comforted by "an upside-down angel" when he was growing up. Mazel-Carlton modeled an H.V.N. principle that prizes curiosity about other realities by asking the man for more about his experience. In reply to another participant, she said, "I'm so sorry that people are refusing to honor your soul's identity."  Then a woman talked about visiting her grandmother in a nursing home during Covid and seeing her grandmother's "glowing pink orb rising from her chest" and everything as "sparkling and glowing and timeless." The woman said, "Everything was connected; there was this pulse, this flow" — and there was a fight with a nurse when the woman, feeling that she was God, took off her mask. A psychiatrist labeled her psychotic, "so I couldn't keep telling him my experiences, because he was telling me I'm sick, and I'm not sick."  In this, according to the mainstream view, she was confirming her illness; denial of one's diagnosis, termed anosognosia, is seen as a glaring symptom of psychotic disorder. Much more at the NYT article (or, alternatively, the book).

"The F.D.A. said it expected Abbott to restart [infant formula] production in about two weeks... at the plant in Sturgis, Mich." Posted: 17 May 2022 02:50 AM PDT "It has been shut down since February after several babies who had consumed formula that had been produced there fell ill and two died. The agreement stems from a U.S. Department of Justice complaint and consent decree with the company and three of its executives. Those court records say the F.D.A. found a deadly bacteria, called cronobacter, in the plant in February and the company found more tranches of the bacteria later that month. According to the complaint, the same Sturgis factory had also produced two batches of formula in the summer of 2019 and 2020 on different production equipment that tested positive for the bacteria. Abbott staff 'have been unwilling or unable to implement sustainable corrective actions to ensure the safety and quality of food manufactured for infants,' leading to the need for legal action, the documents state. In a release, Abbott said 'there is no conclusive evidence to link Abbott's formulas to these infant illnesses.'"  "F.D.A. and Abbott Reach Agreement on Baby Formula to Try to Ease Shortage/The company said production could resume in about 2 weeks and store shelves would be restocked several weeks later" (NYT). Here's the Wikipedia article on cronobacter:  Cronobacter was first proposed as a new genus in 2007 as a clarification of the taxonomic relationship of the biogroups found among strains of Enterobacter sakazakii....  Cronobacter (Cro.no.bac'ter) is from the Greek noun Cronos (Κρόνος), one of the Titans of mythology, who swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born, and the New Latin masculine noun bacter, a rod, resulting in the N.L. masc. n. Cronobacter, a rod that can cause illness in neonates.

At the Sunrise Café... Posted: 16 May 2022 05:47 PM PDT  ... you can talk about whatever you want.

"Personal essays that don’t make an argument are generally not op-eds." Posted: 16 May 2022 06:45 AM PDT "Even if the op-ed includes a personal story, it should have a point to make — something readers can engage with and think about. Journalistic investigations without an argument are not op-eds. Poems and works of fiction usually aren't op-eds either. Neither are reviews of books, movies, television shows or other media.... When considering op-eds, we look for pieces that will accomplish one or more of the following goals for our readers: Help people more deeply understand a topic in the news Help them understand what it means for them. Equip them with arguments they can employ when talking about the subject. Elevate ideas that help them think about the world differently. Expose them to topics they might not have heard about. Help them better articulate their own perspective. Help them understand perspectives different from their own.... "We strive to publish a diversity of opinions on our op-ed page. Often, that means we are specifically seeking viewpoints that are different from those of our columnists or the Editorial Board." From "The Washington Post guide to writing an op-ed" — featured at the top of the website front page today. You know, people are not that good at making arguments. Way too much of what we see these days is a demand for agreement and a threat or insinuation that you're going to be in trouble if you don't agree. Or there's a pettish insistence on avoiding anyone not already on your side and not inclined to go along with whatever's the next thing that people like you go along with.  What if you had to convince people who don't agree with you and don't crave your approval? What on earth would you say? Well, maybe WaPo has some op-eds that will give you some talking points.

"Behavioral economists and psychologists have, in recent years, shown employers that there’s a business case for their fixation on positivity." Posted: 16 May 2022 06:31 AM PDT "One study in the Journal of Labor Economics found that people who were given chocolates to eat and comedies to watch — common happiness generators — were 12 percent more productive than a group left alone.... 'There's evidence that we get the causal arrow of happiness wrong,' said Laurie Santos, a cognitive scientist who teaches Yale's popular course on happiness. 'You think, "I'm feeling productive at work and things are going well at work and therefore I'm happy." But the evidence seems to suggest that the other arrow exists as well, that happiness can really affect your work performance.'...  But many see a risk for workers in believing that their employers are cultivating an emotional relationship with them, when in reality the relationship is about money. 'Your boss is not there to provide you with happiness,' said Sarah Jaffe, author of 'Work Won't Love You Back.' 'No matter how much they say they're focusing on happiness, they're focusing on profits.'" From "Are You Happy? Your Boss Is Asking. To some, the pursuit of workplace happiness — and its price, like an $18,000 'happiness M.B.A.' for managers — can seem like a corporate attempt to turn feelings into productivity" (NYT). hap

For the annals of Things You're Not Going to Do. Posted: 16 May 2022 06:19 AM PDT "Strengthen your tongue. One of the most common causes of snoring is when your tongue slides back in your throat. The simplest way to prevent this is with a daily set of tongue exercises. But Dr. Chang said it can take weeks to have an effect and most people are not diligent in keeping them up." From "How Can I Stop Snoring? This sleep-disrupting problem can be caused by a variety of things, but experts say there are ways to find relief" (NYT).

"In recent years, a growing number of medical and public health groups have introduced public awareness campaigns warning people to drink with caution, noting that alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer, behind tobacco and obesity." Posted: 16 May 2022 05:52 AM PDT From "Should Your Cocktail Carry a Cancer Warning? As pandemic disruptions lead many of us to drink more, experts underscore the link between alcohol and disease" (NYT)(the article is featured on the front page of the NYT right now, but it was published in 2021). There's not too much talk about alcohol causing cancer, but there's even less talk about obesity causing cancer. In fact, I don't believe I'd ever heard that obesity can cause cancer, and yet, apparently, it's the second leading preventable cause of cancer. The article is about alcohol as a cause of cancer, so I had to look up what cancer is caused by obesity. Here's what the CDC has to say. It lists "13 Cancers... associated with overweight and obesity" Meningioma (cancer in the tissue covering brain and spinal cord) Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus Multiple myeloma (cancer of blood cells) Kidneys Uterus Ovaries Thyroid Breast (post-menopausal women) Liver Gallbladder Upper stomach Pancreas Colon and rectum This is a huge deal, but we don't hear about it — presumably because it's strongly believed that telling people to lose weight only makes it worse. Look at this CDC graphic (from 2016) — it's so governmental and tragic:   "Promoting breastfeeding" — that jumps out (in this time of the formula shortage).  That chart is funny — the way so many activities are involved. The most direct approach to losing weight — eating less — is something you can do entirely alone and without moving at all. You can, but it's just so hard. And what's the point of telling people to eat less — a lot less. They know! Everyone knows. It's completely easy and completely hard. AND: Don't get me started on that Corporate Memphis/Alegria/Big Tech art style. Blogged about 6 weeks ago, here.

This is great: SNL parodied the show we've been watching. Posted: 16 May 2022 04:44 AM PDT We hardly watch anything, so this was a real delight. What good are parodies when you don't know the original thing? They do give you some explanation, in case you don't know "Old Enough," but suffice it to say, they track many elements of that Japanese show about little kids sent out alone to do errands: Here's the trailer for the original show, which is a wonderful celebration of toddler independence, that is, it shows Japanese parents doing what would get you arrested in the United States:

"A gunman killed one person and wounded five others at a Taiwanese luncheon in a Laguna Woods church on Sunday, then was tackled by churchgoers who hogtied his legs with extension cords..." Posted: 16 May 2022 04:20 AM PDT "The crowd also managed to take two handguns away from him, said Orange County Undersheriff Jeff Hallock. 'That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism and bravery.... I think it's safe to say if people had not intervened, it could have been much worse.'... The church was hosting a special service and a banquet to honor a former pastor visiting from Taiwan.... Churchgoers were having lunch together and snapping photos to commemorate the occasion when the gunfire rang out. The visiting pastor then struck the suspect with a chair, she said, knocking him to the ground. Moments later, other members of the congregation dogpiled onto him." The Press-Enterprise reports. We're told the shooter was "Asian," so this incident will not feed into the political discourse that has sprung up around the recent shooting in Buffalo.   Great teamwork by the parishioners. Nice leadership by the guest of honor. The attacker had a gun and they fought back with a chair, their own bodies, and extension cords.

"The Woman Wondering If She’s Bisexual Enough to Come Out." Posted: 16 May 2022 03:06 AM PDT Great headline. It's on one of those NY Magazine "Sex Diaries." These purport to be true-life accounts. This one is about a 28-year-old woman. Excerpt: DAY FIVE...  11 a.m. I am violently hung-over and on my way to my Nana's 92nd birthday.  1 p.m. At her celebration, I feel crushing hangxiety about almost everything I said or did the night before. Hidden behind my sunglasses and nursing a piece of watermelon, I contemplate whether or not I feel bisexual enough to come out to my family, and if I ever will or if I even need to.... The author did not invent the word "hangxiety." Here's a CNN article from 2 months ago: "Why you may experience 'hangxiety' during a hangover." Something about cortisol. Go read it if you need to. It's not an advice column, but if anyone actually wants to know when are you "bisexual enough to come out to [your] family," the answer is that it's the wrong question. The issue is never how bisexual are you, but what is your relationship to your family and what do you want to do with it? The answer to that question is never I'm bored and these people are boring. I mean, for one thing, it might turn out that you yourself are boring.

At the Sunrise Café... Posted: 15 May 2022 05:16 PM PDT  ... you can talk about whatever you want.

"Supporters of debt forgiveness argue that targeted relief is inadequate and that broader relief would help to close the [racial wealth] gap." Posted: 15 May 2022 03:27 PM PDT "Black college graduates, on average, owe $25,000 more than their white peers. More than half of Black borrowers report that their net worth is less than the balance of their student loans. And Black borrowers are more likely than their white peers to drop out of school before receiving a degree. But across-the-board debt forgiveness will not help. As a recent report from the Brookings Institution concluded, only targeted policies based on race or socioeconomic status 'can address the inequities caused by federal student lending programs.'" Writes the NYT Editorial Board in "Student Debt Is Crushing. Canceling It for Everyone Is Still a Bad Idea."

"I live in Los Angeles. Everyday I witness filth and disease laden encampments. What I see with my own eyes are people living in squalor..." Posted: 15 May 2022 03:21 PM PDT "... who are either drug addicted or mentally ill. Los Angeles does not have an affordable housing problem nearly as much as a mental health and drug addiction crisis. The status quo is not acceptable. It is hardly humane to enable people to suffer in illness and addiction as if it is somehow that's a life style choice. Local residents and businesses are totally fed up. Governor Newsom's CARE court approach is worth a try, along with a new mayor who actually is committed to solving the root causes of the problem." And: "At this point, I'm beyond caring what type of housing or treatment or support the tent camping homeless get (as long as it's compassionate, not abusive). It's simply long past time to insist that sidewalks, parks, beaches be returned to the general public, for ordinary use. No more camping, period." Those are the 2 highest-rated comments on a Washington Post column titled "Forcing homeless people into treatment can backfire. What about a firm nudge? California Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposed Care Courts have set off a debate about civil rights and human needs." It's by Neil Gong and Alex V. Barnard,  "sociologists who have studied California's public mental health system."

A sunrise, presented at midday, to keep your spirits up. Posted: 15 May 2022 09:32 AM PDT

Just 3 TikToks to tide you over. I was highly selective! Let me know what you liked best. Posted: 15 May 2022 09:26 AM PDT 1. Just how excellent can an airport be? 2. The exquisite subtlety of the dish towel. 3. Mr. Horse Girl.

Let's work together. Posted: 15 May 2022 08:55 AM PDT KAMALA: "We will work together, and continue to work together, to address these issues, to tackle these challenges, and to work together as we continue to work operating from the new norms, rules, and agreements, that we will convene to work together...We will work together" pic.twitter.com/AblARhoSQj — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 15, 2022   Now, let's dance like it's 1970:

Sentence of the Day. Posted: 15 May 2022 08:49 AM PDT Get you diagramming pencil sharpened! This is from "Ron Galella's Relentless Gaze/The photographer's work provides a stark illustration of the hold that celebrity has on our culture" by Naomi Fry in The New Yorker (Note: Galella died recently. Lots of Galella photos of celebs at the link): The photographer sought to catch celebrities with their masks lowered and their auras punctured, but the paradox that animates his best photos is that, whether camera-ready or not, the stars he shot couldn't help but magnetize—whether thanks to the ineffable glow of fame or, simply, because Galella captured them, a circumstance that created its own kind of intimate halo.  Here, I'll get you started:   That's the easy part, though. We all lose interest after that — don't we? — except hypothetically. You see all those phrases. You wonder how big of a piece of paper you'd need to hang them wherever they belong. But what about the meaning? And let's not isolate form and meaning, because the question always is — with these sentences of the day — whether the length and complexity are justified. Is there something wonderful that rewards the diligent reader?  I'm a little skeptical because of the use of "auras" near the beginning and then — near the end — a return to the idea of auras but with different words: "glow of fame" and "intimate halo."  It may be a humdrum fear of the "second mention," but maybe the author really built something worthy. The idea is that Galella meant to puncture the aura, but they kept their aura. My skepticism is taking over now.  Everything depends on whether there really is a paradox! A man meant to do something and it didn't work out. He meant to drag the celebrities down to earth, but they're so superhuman that catching them being ordinary makes that seem all the more special. They incandesce! Okay, I'm going to approve.

If there's "no doubt," why are you calling it an "alleged manifesto"? Posted: 15 May 2022 07:49 AM PDT I am attempting to read "Buffalo mass shooter's alleged manifesto leaves no doubt attack was white supremacist terrorism" (WIVB.com). The gunman was identified during his arraignment as Payton S. Gendron of Conklin, New York. That name that matches the name given in a 180-page manifesto that surfaced online shortly after the attack and took credit for the violence in the name of white supremacy. A name is in the news and afterwards a document surfaces on line. Law enforcement and government officials would not confirm the validity of the document in the immediate hours after the attack. Yet, the excruciating detail provided leave little doubt of its authenticity.... The details presented as authenticating are a description of the event that was in the news.  The attack is terrible, whatever the motivation, and respect for the victims — and for the truth — demands that we not cast off doubts before it is justified. The linked news article includes this embedded tweet but doesn't discuss it, puzzlingly: In an alleged 180-page manifesto, the Tops Markets shooter claimed his name was Payton Gendron and attended Broome CC. However, photos in the document (below) are of sketch comedian Sam Hyde, and Broome CC public safety said they had no record of a Payton Gendron. @news4buffalo pic.twitter.com/fbgSGwVP1H — adam duke (@duke_university) May 14, 2022 ADDED: At the NYT, a subheadline says "The gunman in the Buffalo mass shooting was motivated by racism," but then the text says, "Shortly after Mr. Gendron was captured, a manifesto believed to have been posted online by the gunman emerged, riddled with racist, anti-immigrant views that claimed white Americans were at risk of being replaced by people of color. In the video that appeared to have been captured by the camera affixed to his helmet, an anti-Black racial slur can be seen on the barrel of his weapon."

"Now, after the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, entrepreneurs and activists are floating ideas for an abortion-focused DAO." Posted: 15 May 2022 04:24 PM PDT "They see it as a way to provide money to women in more than two dozen states where abortion services may soon be severely restricted or banned — a kind of 'Underground Railroad for abortion,' as Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code and a host of the 'De-Broing Crypto' podcast, put it in an interview." I'm trying to read this (in the NYT):    "DAO" means decentralized autonomous organization, and "broing" doesn't rhyme with "boing," but with "Boeing." Yes, a hyphen would help — "bro-ing" — but they wanted the prefix "de-," so the helpful hyphen would give us "de-bro-ing," so presumably that's why the decided against it.  Anyway, I'm not enough of a fan of de-bro-i-fication to put effort into understanding crypto. I just want to say that it's silly to personify "crypto" and portray it as "joining" something called "the abortion conversation." That whole conceptualization sounds creepy to me — and I proudly own the femininity of my reaction. Here's another feminine and completely non-bro-y reaction: I don't like the new logo-ization of the female reproductive organs. It looks like an elephant, that inclusion of the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and the vagina. Is the uterus alone too hard to recognize? The only other thing I'd like to mention is the phrase "a kind of 'Underground Railroad for abortion.'" This isn't the first place I'm seeing the idea to be deprived of access to abortion is slavery. Is it okay — is it good — to equate present-day demands for rights to the 19th-century struggle to abolish slavery? Is it accurate? Is it moral? Is it effective political speech? I would say no to all those questions, and I have always supported a woman's sovereignty over her own body and the consequent right to access to abortion.  ADDED: The idea of crypto participating in a conversation is a variation on the old trope "money talks." ALSO: To state what ought to be obvious, fugitive slaves had to hide. They could not legally leave their bondage, and even if they got to a "free" state, they could be captured and, under the law, returned to their owners. If abortion becomes illegal in your state, you don't lose your right to travel. You can openly travel to another state and get an abortion. Your path is completely above ground. Yes, it's more troublesome and expensive. But don't overdramatize. It's as bad as it is but no worse than it is. You are not in the position of a slave, and you should not want to diminish the cruelty of slavery by portraying yourself in that light.

"Finland is applying for NATO membership. A protected Finland is being born as part of a stable, strong and responsible Nordic region." Posted: 15 May 2022 04:38 AM PDT "We gain security and we also share it. It's good to keep in mind that security isn't a zero-sum game." Said Finland's president, Sauli Niinistö, quoted in "Finland formally confirms intention to join Nato/Nordic country that shares 800-mile border with Russia looks to end decades of non-alignment" (The Guardian).

Elon Musk tells us how to "fix" our Twitter feed. Posted: 15 May 2022 04:19 AM PDT I'm not suggesting malice in the algorithm, but rather that it's trying to guess what you might want to read and, in doing so, inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 15, 2022

Sunrise series. Posted: 14 May 2022 03:05 PM PDT As you can see in picture #3, I had a lot of company this morning. University students, I presume. There's lots of graduation activity in Madison today. Maybe these kids had been out all night, because they were firmly in place when I arrived at the location at 5:25. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop on them. I had AirPods in and music playing, but I couldn't help picking up that they were snacking on Cinnamon Toast Cheerios and discussing other cereals — specifically Cap'n Crunch and Lucky Charms. Speaking of lucky and music and the sun, as I write this, I'm listening to...

"Every generation has had an apocalyptic view of their lives... We’re not wired to save.... We’re wired to consume." Posted: 15 May 2022 04:39 AM PDT "If you have an exciting vision of the future, those are the people who aggressively save for retirement. If you have an apocalyptic vision of the future, why would you save for it? Of course you wouldn't." Said Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist, quoted in "The World's a Mess. So They've Stopped Saving for Tomorrow. Many adults under 35 are throwing financial caution to the wind. It's all about saving less, spending more and pursuing passions" (NYT).

"TikTok has no interest in your friends. Instead, it has developed an artificial intelligence-based recommendation engine that divines your desires..." Posted: 14 May 2022 01:57 PM PDT "... by interpreting the most subtle of clues. They range from how long you watch a video to whether you share it, and what the content contains.... In 2020, TikTok raced past Facebook and Instagram in terms of how much time users spend on the platform. This year it is set to overtake YouTube.... Mark Zuckerberg this month announced a monumental shift in how the core Facebook and Instagram experiences will function, moving away from the social graph and investing heavily in an AI-powered recommendation engine that will serve up the most viral posts from across its network — just like TikTok.... Zhang Yiming, 39, the son of civil servants, founded ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, in a Beijing flat ten years ago.... [TikTok is] the first and only company from Communist China to make a dent in the West. Maria Bridge of the ethical campaign group Center for Humane Technology said: 'TikTok is a propagandist's dream: profile someone's tastes and opinions, then use an algorithm to subtly nudge them in whatever direction you choose. Point that tech at a generation of teens and it's terrifying in anyone's hands.'" From "How TikTok became the phenomenon you can't afford to ignore new/The video app is making a billion dollars a month and leaving rivals in its wake — it's not too late to take it seriously, says Danny Fortson" (London Times).

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