Old Jimmy Twodicks

Yes officer, this comment right here.

Richard B. Riddick. The “B” is for Butt.

Also, I just like saying “Thanks, Obama”

The CFPB was authorized by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. In addition to helping get Dodd-Frank through Congress, Obama appointed Elizabeth Warren as a special advisor to the Treasury in order to oversee the CFPB and help get it off the ground.

Thanks, Obama:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/

I prefer the simple dy/my/dy/my format (with the year reversed for added ease of use). For example, today would be 14/02/70/72.

NIST and ISO have stopped responding to my emails, but I’m optimistic that the Türk Standardları Enstitüsü will eventually adopt it as their preferred standard.

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Every day we drift further from the light of the Lord…

I can’t believe you’ve done this.

This, to me, is one of the biggest fallacies of tech companies claiming they care about sustainability goals. No matter the application, most of our hardware is made with materials that come from central Africa. Those mines and facilities are largely controlled by China. Whatever you think of China politically, you have to recognize that many of the sustainability disclosures that, say, Apple is making are premised on these mines self-reporting compliance with certain standards. In practice, miners are using outdated, poorly maintained equipment. Commonly, they’re using shovels and even their hands.

You can write all the cutesy reports you want with stock photos of green leaves, hands holding soil, and smiling “farmers.” Unless and until you’re directly funding better means of extracting raw materials like cobalt from the ground, companies’ claims about their commitment to ESG should be completely dismissed as nonsense.

Some sources:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-24/cobalt-mining-in-the-congo-green-energy/100802588

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/drc-cobalt-and-copper-mining-for-batteries-leading-to-human-rights-abuses/

About ten years ago, I went through this process with as many data brokers and reporting agencies as possible. I printed documents, made accounts, mailed letters, and jumped through every hoop they set up. Some of the companies only recognized my request for a term of five years, while some were permanent.

I don’t get random credit card offers in the mail any more. However, since I started using an email alias service a few years ago, I’ve found my data making its way back to the data brokers. I’m not in the EU, so I don’t think I have much recourse for it. Even so, I think it’s worth it to jump through all the hoops. Maybe one day it’ll feel more meaningful.

tl;dr: It was cumbersome to do it, and other than a reduction in snail mail spam, I haven’t seen much benefit from it. All the same, I’d do it again.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is an oppressive dictator who was responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses of any former Soviet State (which is a pretty damn high bar).

He is also an absolute cartoon character.

Well, this looks like a goddamn nightmare.