Instawrecked

There once was a cute little app made for creative folks who’d noticed that their iPhone had a pretty good camera, actually. 

Meta bought it, tortured it to death over a few years, and has essentially reanimated it as a shambling, ad-heavy TikTok clone, oozing AI slop, but still wearing the old "Instagram" name like a skin suit.

I think my first Instagram post was this shot of Dinky taken at Castle Frostbite. 

I didn't get on Instagram until I got my first iPhone. I can't remember if it was still iPhone-only then or not. My pictures were normal ones: pets, food, fluffy clouds, shit I was doing. They were intended for my friends because I was one of those weirdos who thought that's what social media was for: y'know, being social.

I didn't know it was about trying to game algorithms and rack up followers for big-time influencer bucks. And with Meta at the helm, Instagram was increasingly optimized for that. Now if I were to open the app, I'd probably have to scroll through three or four screens before I saw a still photo from a friend I was following and not a video from someone trying to make money off me. (I thought the whole point of "following" someone on a social media app was so the app would show you new posts when they made them?)

I should probably do like I did with FB and just delete the Instagram app from my phone. I haven't opened it in months, after all.

Wild Weather Last Night

Fortunately the worst of it here in Indiana passed south of us. Multiple tornadoes were reported down Bloomington way, and a tree fell on a car, killing the driver and injuring the other three occupants.

Fortunately here in Indianapolis we just got rain, wind, and a pretty good atmospheric sound & light show, but it's that time of year where you can't help but get apprehensive when the sky turns green.

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Thank God it's Memeday!

Automotif DLXXV...

The 1984 Ford Mustang GT represented the final year of the Malaise Era, with its 302 cubic inch small block V-8 putting out 175 SAE net horsepower.

The next model year would see the output bumped to 210hp, which was the first time a Mustang engine had cracked the 200 horsepower barrier since the 351 Cobra Jet "Q-code" motor of 1973, which put out 266 net ponies and was the swan song of the original Muscle Car Era.

EDIT: This is an ‘83, actually. Anyway…

This one was photographed with a Sony a700 and a 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens.

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Meme Dump!

Hump Day Memes!

Automotif DLXXIV...

A 1964 Mercury Montclair in the distinctive Pink Frost color motoring down College Avenue on a lovely late spring weekend morning in SoBro. You can click to embiggenate.

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Meme Dump!

Overheard in the Hallway...

RX: "I had multiple copies of The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook because my family members kept gifting them to me."

Me: "I have one you can have if you want it."

RX: "Oh, I still have one..."

Me: "I mean just in case your copy caught fire."

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Tab Clearing...

• Deepfakes, Scams, and the Age of Paranoia


• It's a good time to be a goldbug.


• Hipster Tactical review of the US-made SIG Sauer P210.

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Hark! Memes Upon a Monday Morn!

Automotif DLXXIII...

An Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster in Pentland Green is an eye-catching sight, and makes me wish I had a bit more lens on my EOS-1D than the 24-105mm f/4L.

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Mama Mia! Memes!

Automotif DLXXII...

A two-tone Austin Healey 3000 Mk III sports convertible in Ice Blue Metallic and Old English White. Produced for the 1965 through 1967 model years, it was deemed too hard to bring into compliance with the upcoming U.S. vehicle requirements of 1968 and so the Big Healey was discontinued and replaced with the MGC.

Meme Dump!

Tab Clearing...

• After Indian missiles strike Pakistani airbases, Pakistan launches retaliatory attacks on Indian military facilities.


• From flip-flops to swim trunks to barbecue grills to sun umbrellas, summer's gonna cost more this year.


• Meta reverses course, decides to add facial recognition to its factory smart glasses.

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Friday Morning Memery...

Meta Is Evil

The maxim "If something's free, you aren't the customer, you're the product" has been around for a while. What companies like Meta and Google sell is your attention, and they can ask a fairly high price for it because they can target it so precisely, thanks to the volumes of data they collect on you.

"And as the data trade expands, so too does the tech behind it. What were once chintzy if endearing tabloid-style popups — "Doctors hate him! See how he reversed his age with one weird trick" — have now become hyper-personalized ads crafted and delivered for very specific groups of users, a system called "social media targeting."

Targeted ads on social media are made possible by analyzing four key metrics: your personal info, like gender and age; your interests, like the music you listen to or the comedians you follow; your "off app" behavior, like what websites you browse after watching a YouTube video; and your "psychographics," meaning general trends glossed from your behavior over time, like your social values and lifestyle habits."

Lately Meta got caught deliberately targeting beauty ads to teen girls who had recently deleted selfies, which is tap dancing on the borderline between advertising and psychoengineering.

If you haven't read Careless People, it's worth your while.

About the only place I ever go on Facebook anymore is my own personal timeline, especially because the feed has become a morass of ads interspersed with ragebait arguments. I'm the FB equivalent of the antisocial introverted homebody who doesn't like going to parties, but doesn't mind having friends over to chill.

I tend to leave a browser tab open to my own page. Now, if I leave that tab unattended for any length of time, when I click back on it, it automatically...and without any input from me...pops over to the feed, causing me to have to manually click the back button to get back to my own page. That's dirty pool.

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Meme Dump...

Splash! Crash!

For the second time in the last couple days an F/A-18 Super Hornet from the USS Harry S. Truman has wound up in the drink, this time from an accident following a missed trap.

See here if you don't get it.

Meanwhile, the Finns lost an F/A-18C to an accident, too. The aircrew on the U.S. Navy and Finnish Air Force jets all ejected safely. Not a good week for the Plastic Bug. (Of course, there are a blue jillion Hornets and Super Hornets in operation. Accidents happen.)

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