Abe Newman: "1/ Musk seeking control over nerve systems of the federal government. As someone who spent a decade studying how centralized information systems are used for coercion this is a five alarm fire. We need to name it, identify risks, and seek to mitigate their impacts. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/u..." — Bluesky

Society
AI and Copyright: Expanding Copyright Hurts Everyone—Here’s What to
You shouldn't need a permission slip to read a webpage–whether you do it with your own eyes, or use software to help. AI is a category of general-purpose tools with myriad beneficial uses. Requiring
Copyright and AI: the Cases and the Consequences
The launch of ChatGPT and other deep learning quickly led to a flurry of lawsuits against model developers. Legal theories vary, but most are rooted in copyright: plaintiffs argue that use of their
Rethinking Reconstruction: Kate Masur on Freedom Was in Sight
“Freedom Was in Sight” conveys that even as Reconstruction ended and the Jim Crow order took shape in the South, not everything was lost.
Hannah Arendt: From an Interview | by Hannah Arendt
What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie—a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days—but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.
Project 2025 Tracker
Track the progress on Project 2025
Why Democrats Won’t Throw a Real Punch
Faced with existential threats from the right, the Democratic leadership remains timid; faced with demands for justice from the left, it goes on the attack.
Pluralistic: Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat (20 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Umarell - Wikipedia
The surprising theory that explains modern American life
Why don’t you move?
Why I'm Woke
Administrative note: At the request of a few of you, I'm turning on public comments for Not A Tech Bro. I do this with some trepidation. Up front, the rules are: Polite and constructive. Disagree if you like, but don't be a dick. No threats, no doxxing. If some comments
The tech oligarchs and their AI are taking over. Let's fight back.
Alright, I’m really doing this thing. Support Blood in the Machine and fearless independent tech journalism.
Moving on from 18F. — ethanmarcotte.com
I had a wonderful job, until I didn’t. This is about what happened—and what is happening.
America Needs a Working-Class Media
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/america-needs-working-class-media-end-catering-rich-audiences.php [Alissa Quart in Columbia Journalism Review]This article cuts right to the core of why media is failing to connect with mass audiences in America.
How Many Bitcoins are there and How many are Left to Mine?
Explore how Bitcoin mining affects Bitcoin's price, including the impact of mining & economic factors on this dynamic crypto market.
Who Is Driving the Global Privatization of Domestic Infrastructure? | naked capitalism
An otherwise informative post about the extent and hazards of infrastructure sales misses who the real bad actors are.
There is no 1875 epoch
The SSA can store dates before 1875
You are just your bosses’ little bitch
Workplace dictatorships.
The Man Madison Warned Us Against
He authored the Constitution to forestall the rise of a despotic president. We’ll soon see if those safeguards suffice.
I work in global health. Trump ditching the World Health Organization might be the wake-up call it needs.
Here’s what Trump gets right — and wrong — about the WHO.
Pluralistic: Business school professors trained an AI to judge workers’ personalities based on their faces (17 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Turning the Moon into a fuel depot will take a lot of power
Getting oxygen from regolith takes 24 kWh per kilogram, and we’d need tonnes.
Noise-canceling headphones may be rewiring young brains, experts warn
The issue revolves around a condition called auditory processing disorder (APD), in which the brain struggles to interpret sounds and speech, even when a person's hearing is...
I *DO* Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People
“Go ahead and make me.” OK, we will.
They are stealing from you
Happy Presidents' Day
Ruha Benjamin on DEI, but not really ⊗ Media codes and how to resist them ⊗ The end of search, the beginning of research
No.344 — Major AI copyright case in the US ⊗ Toolkit for applied strategic foresight ⊗ The Anthropic Economic Index ⊗ The Forest Speaks
A tale of two suckers: Donald Trump’s plastic straws and Keir Starmer | Stewart Lee
The US president has scrapped paper straws because they allegedly ‘explode’ – a bit like the PM’s reputation if he keeps refusing to confront him on the big issues
The fundamental challenge for civil society: most people are stupid and/or assholes
This explains everything.
The Tech Barons have a blueprint drawn in crayon. They have not thought any of this through.
A review of Balaji Srinivasan's book, The Network State.
Why Narcissists Can Forget Their Own Bad Behavior
A narcissist's ability to magically erase any wrongdoings from their memory is harmful.