Merry Christmas, if you’re into that sort of thing!

Anyone bored enough to want to first read a chunk of novel? Not sure if it’s worth continuing with or not.
Twitter thingy (which now works!) linked to my nick. Can get in touch that way.

Many network shows are on a break right now. Maybe because of the Olympics. If Gotham is on NBC than it’s definitely because of that. The X-Files and Riverdale are off for a couple of weeks too. I don’t think it’s a big deal. Sweeps time isn’t the big deal it used to be now that there are different platforms to watch shows and everyone isn’t watching at the original airtime anymore.

@Surplus

I can’t find any info about why Gotham was delayed until March! I thought it might be because of the Olympics but Fox doesn’t cover it. I’m really glad it’s not canceled though.

@WWTH:

Sweeps time isn’t the big deal it used to be now that there are different platforms to watch shows and everyone isn’t watching at the original airtime anymore.

By the same argument, being at the same time as the Olympics wouldn’t be the big deal it used to be, so there shouldn’t be any effect due to the Olympics. Not that that could explain it anyway unless they Olympics have been going on since early January …

Though, the thing that’s troubling me most is that I think they’re trying to stealth-inflate the price for watching TV, by moving stuff to online-only platforms that you have to pay extra for, and separately at half a dozen different services.

Also has another consequence they might not even be aware of, blinded by class privilege as they undoubtedly are. One can establish accounts with local utilities without credit, e.g. by going in person to their office and subsequently paying by check or direct deposit. This includes cable and satellite TV. And of course airwave TV is free at the point of use.

But online-only pay platforms require a credit card. I’ve never seen an online merchant accept checks or debit, and of course if they did accept debit you wouldn’t dare use it for fear of hackers being able to clean out your account.

There really needs to be a way to pay for stuff online without having to do it on credit, and without exposing the full balance of your bank account to an unscrupulous fly-by-night merchant or hackers either. Some new banking service that, say, lets you charge up a card with small amounts of money, then use that card to pay online anywhere a credit card is accepted, without going into debt and without any way for anyone who compromises the card number to get at a single cent more than whatever you transferred to that card. It would have to be a lightweight process. It would have to be possible to change the card number for each transaction if you wanted to, and suck any unused balance on the old one back to your main bank account at that time, or else roll it over to the new card. It would probably have to be a virtual card, rather than an actual piece of plastic — just the numbers to use online. And importantly, it would have to be impossible for online merchants to distinguish card numbers from this source from “real” credit cards, so they could not discriminate.

Right now there are a few ways to approximate this, but they all have major problems.

1. Visa gift cards: can load with a fixed amount; no debt; exposure limited to the amount you loaded onto it. On the other hand, you have to physically travel to a store and buy a little plastic card for each one — it’s not lightweight. And I hear merchants can distinguish the numbers of these from those of “real” credit cards.

2. Creating a second bank account with its own debit card. This would need an online merchant that took debit to use, and is not lightweight as long as one has to physically present oneself to a bank teller to do things like create accounts and shift money between accounts. Perhaps shifting money between accounts can be done with online banking these days, but enabling online banking for your accounts carries its own hacking risks. And again you’d need an online merchant that took debit. And you’d incur a second set of monthly service charges from having that second account.

3. Cryptocurrency. But it’s not widely accepted, and converting real money into cryptocurrency is still an exercise in hoop jumping. There’s also no way to even try to claw it back if the merchant stiffs you. And cryptocurrencies are famously susceptible to exchange rate volatility.

4. Online services like PayPal might at least let you only give one company a credit card number that can directly be used to put you in hock up to your eyeballs. On the other hand, PayPal is evil, and is the only truly ubiquitous one. There have been numerous complaints about PayPal’s business practices, including that they try to get access to your bank accounts after a while, and other privacy-invasive things. They also charge a hefty commission on every transaction they mediate. (So do the credit card companies, but they charge them to the merchants, not the customers.)

Of course, there may be intentional behavior here to structure things to artificially force the use of credit cards — the banks don’t really profit from dinging you service charges, as those basically just cover their costs of operations. They profit when you go into debt, so they want you to take out mortgages or lines of credit and make big purchases, and failing that they want you to get a credit card and then sometimes overspend and/or miss a payment so a balance rolls over at the end of a month and they can charge interest on it.

It’s unlikely we can do much about it without first reducing the political clout of the banking industry. The opportunity to do that should come soon. The Second Great Depression is on its way, and as happened in the first one it should erode the holdings of the wealthy and the banks sufficiently severely as to loosen their grip on the politicians enough for reforms to be forced through — as happened with FDR’s New Deal and then the Great Society programs the last time.

@calmdown,

Maybe it isn’t, but I do it too. I usually use paypal for sites I’m not familiar with, with the (possibly mistaken) belief that that avoids some of the risk. I don’t recall ever being charged *more* for the services than what I’m paying for, at least, not if I’m using my bank account vs my card. Not awesome but it works and it’s convenient. Meh.

I have little enough money at any given time, and a lot of other things to concern myself with. I guess I should be more careful, but spoons need to be doled out carefully, and worrying about these things is just going to take away from more pressing matters.

Oops. Meant to add info about my new income source. Since my grandmother’s oxygen drops whenever she walks around, she needs someone to help her get dressed, fix her food, take care of the pets and give her the various respiratory meds. So I’m going to be paid to take care her of her mostly on weekdays.

Surplus:

There really needs to be a way to pay for stuff online without having to do it on credit, and without exposing the full balance of your bank account to an unscrupulous fly-by-night merchant or hackers either.

A prepaid credit card. It’s a misnomer, because there’s no credit involved. Here in the UK, for example, there’s the Pockit card. They’re aimed mainly at students, people with poor credit ratings, and people without bank accounts, but anyone with an address can get one.. You charge it up, either using cash at participating stores, or (if you have a bank account) online, using your bank’s debit card. You can then use it anywhere that accepts credit cards, including online: functionally, from the merchant’s point of view, it is a credit card. But you can only spend the amount you’ve paid into the card. When you’ve used up the money you put on the card, charge it up again.

@Fabe

The Youtube comments are even better. Everything from ‘he only held back because she was a woman’ to ‘it didn’t count as a real match without any blows being landed’, and even one declaring it a point proven because reasons.

Just sweet, sweet denial all around (and of course, plenty of ‘if that were me I would have totally beaten her flat’ bravado). About as predictable as you’d expect from these people.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lOtEzwWX9yg

Z&T-I’m sorry to hear about your recent troubles regarding getting that check sorted out. It sucks, especially on top of everything else. It’s good that you now know what’s going on, though. Not knowing is the worst! I am the sort of person who always worries and it stresses me out! You will get it sorted and it will be one less thing to worry about. 😀 Anyway, you are not a whiner. Sometimes we need to vent about things and that’s ok. That’s what’s so great about this patch of internet, we listen and help each other. 😀

Moggie-The Pockit cards sounds great! It would be particularly useful for people trying to escape domestic violence. One could easily stock up on money without the abusive partner knowing about it, or having access to it because it does not require a bank account. It can be hidden much more easily than cash, too. Being able to hide money is crucial, because victims of domestic violence are often financially isolated by their abusive partners. 🙁

New comment as my last one got a tad loooong.

@Shadowplay,

I actually have some free time before teaching starts again, so I could look if you want? I’ll DM you.

@Arctic Ape,

That’s perfect. You’re a gem.

A possibly concerning article in the Guardian: Racism is creeping back into mainstream science – we have to stop it

Said possibly concerning as I don’t have the knowledge to judge how big the risk of it mainstreaming actually is. People here swim in the academic paper sea every day and so do have the knowledge! 😛

@WWTH
I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother. I hope for a best-case-scenario type of outcome.