Apple

A Different Type of Green Peace

Apple is bringing RCS support to iOS but you will still be green. Also, Elon Musk is a horses ass, Democrats turn on their own base, a robot is already deciding our fate, an a sorta-kinda war broke out in the past.

Endeavorance

Nov 17, 2023 — 5 min read

Programming Note

Dear reader, first of all thank you for being here. Your support means the world to me, and I am so excited to continue to bring you SKH among my many other ongoing content projects.

I will be taking a few weeks off from Stuff Keeps Happening as I have a few too many things to take care of, in addition to the incoming holidays, as well as attending PAX Unplugged in Philly from December 1st through 3rd.

I will still be streaming on my twitch and will be uploading some other content to my YouTube channel, as well as continuing to post clips and random content to my TikTok and Instagram.

This time will also be used to help focus on the upcoming launch of a new major podcast project with fellow creator DianaOfTheRose. Expect an announcement very, very soon!

I currently plan to return to Stuff Keeps Happening on Wednesday, December 6th. I will post here if that plan changes.

So I'll see you around, and as always, I encourage you to check out my other work, and consider joining my Discord community.

You'll Still Be Green

After years of holding out, Apple has finally (and suddenly) announced that they will be bringing RCS support to iMessage, finally allowing rich messaging features to work between iPhones and Android phones.

RCS support will add improved group chat, typing indicators, improved media formatting, reactions, and more when texting cross-platform. To be clear: this does not mean iMessage is coming to Android, it means that Android devices texting iOS devices can now have an experience more like when you message someone directly via iMessage.

Unfortunately, Apple has announced that RCS messages in iMessage will still appear green. So that stigma is proooobably not really going away.

Funnily enough, and possibly related, this came right after phone company "Nothing" announced "Nothing Chats" which was going to allow native integration with iMessage from an Android phone. But how? Literally partnering with a company who has a giant server farm of Mac Minis that sign in to your iCloud account on your behalf and route your information through their servers.

So. Not GREAT. Hopefully this move is a bit better for folks.

Shock And Unexpected: Musk Remains A Horses Ass

Elon Musk recently tweeted in strong support of a blatantly antisemitic conspiracy theory, and has since then been basically digging in his heels, attacking outlets such as MediaMatters for writing about his own antisemitism and the rampant antisemitism on his platform.

I will not be linking to his original post, as I will no longer be linking to Twitter (or X as he wants it to die under) moving forward. I strongly encourage folks to consider moving away from Twitter if you have yet to do so. I understand that can be a huge ask for some people, but at this point, continued use of Twitter perpetuates a machine that Musk is actively using to fuel hatred.

Hell, even IBM has pulled their ads from Twitter in response to the tweets, saying they have "suspended all advertising on X while [they] investigate this entirely unacceptable situation." If you weren't aware, IBM worked with the Nazis during the Holocaust. And this is too far for them.

Reminder: Democrats Suck Too

Secondary reminder: I am not a centrist.

Protestors in Washington, DC demonstrated peacefully outside of DNC headquarters this past Wednesday night, joining arms and singing songs while making a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Cops responded to the act of free speech and protest by attacking the protestors, yanking them out of their group, running over them with bikes, punching at them, pepper spraying them and more. Footage from the ground shows the protestors literally just standing around before cops began attacking them.

The response from the Democrats? "I was so scared! It was like January 6th!"

They are—quite literally—trying to compare this to January 6th.

The politicians and major media outlets are working hyper overtime trying to spin this as some sort of violent protest. 6 cops were "injured" according to reports, with injuries ranging from "scrapes" to "being punched" to pepper spray.

What the reports seem to bury is that 90+ protesters were injured by the attacks from the cops. NINETY. Also punched, run over, pepper sprayed, dragged, beaten and more.

Democrat leadership has denounced the protest, claiming it was violent and VEWY SCAWY. They were nearly held accountable by their constituents.

As a third reminder: Under Dem leadership, we have lost reproductive rights, Trump's border wall was expanded, queer rights have been rolled back across the country, interracial marriage and gay marriage legality are now threatened, and we are helping to fund a genocide in Gaza. That is not to say that things wouldn't be worse under full Republican leadership, but the notion of Dems being for the people or at all working for their constituents should be blatantly false to anyone paying attention at this point.

The Robot That Decides Our Fate

The real world Oratrice Mechanique D'analyse Cardinale.

According to a lawsuit filed against UnitedHealth—the largest medical insurance company in America—the company has been using deeply flawed artificial intelligence to make decisions on insurance coverage, especially screwing over elderly patients in rehabilitation programs.

The AI in use, called "nh Predict," is supposed to look at patient information and determine how much "post-acute" care they will need. The AI is not particularly good at being actually informed on the intense nuance of human health, with major blind spots such as ignoring comorbidities. The result is an AI that ends coverage support well before doctor recommendations.

UnitedHealth doesn't let doctors or patients see more information about the decisions made by the AI, claiming that it is "proprietary." So you can't even argue with the robot that decided you'll go bankrupt from medical costs to make an insurance company more money.

Of course, this is Good For The Company. An unaccountable, heartless digital being making "the tough decisions" helps them out, especially when those "tough decisions" seem to routinely be "fuck over patients to get more money."

On This Day…

On this day in 1810, the Sweden declared war on Great Britain, kicking off the two-year long Anglo-Swedish war of 1810-1812.

Except… nothing else really happened. No battles took place and it ended up being a bloodless war. English ships were even still docked at Swedish harbors to allow trade to continue.

Literally the only people who died in "the war" were some farmers who were protesting conscription efforts in Sweden.