Pluralistic: Blue Bonds (04 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
OpenAI Is Just Another Boring, Desperate AI Startup
What is OpenAI?
I realize you might say "a foundation model lab" or "the company that runs ChatGPT," but that doesn't really give the full picture of everything it’s promised, or claimed, or leaked that it was or would be.
No, really, if you believe its leaks to the
Data on Sydney Sweeney Ad Controversy Shows How MAGA Weaponizes Social Trends
Manufacturing outrage.
Name A 28-Year-Old | Defector
Here is the challenge before you: Name a famous person who is 28 years old. Go ahead. No cheating, no looking it up. Off the dome. Pure, uncut 28-year-old naming. I bet you can’t do it. Zendaya? 29. Gracie Abrams? 26. Paul Mescal? 29. Hannah Einbinder? 30. You’re lower than dirt. You couldn’t name a…
Why Every Company Suddenly Wants AI Engineers (& What They’re Actually Looking For) - HackerRank Blog
This piece is part of our Hottest Jobs in Tech series — a set of...
Weak Jobs Growth Leads to Millions of US Workers Left Out - Bloomberg
archived 30 Sep 2025 20:53:53 UTC
Let the web be the web
The social web is the web. It's just that simple.
Should tech run the world?
Dave Winer, OG blogger, podcaster, developed first apps in many categories. Old enough to know better. It's even worse than it appears.
Pluralistic: When your ISP pays you (03 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: Decarbonization at a distance (02 Oct 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
AI "Born Secret"? The Atomic Energy Act, AI, and Federalism - CITP Blog
Can states regulate AI risks of disclosing nuclear secrets? This post will explore the Atomic Energy Act, its applicability to AI, the potential impacts on state efforts, and potential policy recommendations for guiding AI safety evaluations and model releases.
Naked Capitalism: Your Indispensable Bullshit Detector | naked capitalism
It is harder and harder to know what is what these days. We have never been so inundated with information, but so much of it is worthless -- or worse, misleading.
The planet, and human social life, depend on peasant farmers | Aeon Essays
Far from being a relic of the past, peasants are vital to feeding the world. They need to be supported, not marginalised
Nordic Socialism
Danish MP Pelle Dragsted explains the tradition.
We Are Not Peasants
Against the New Feudalism of Algorithms and Oligarchs
The Criminal Enterprise Masquerading as a Political Party
The Seditious Conspiracy Disguised as Conservatism
‘Crazy, Right?’: More PE Funds Than McDonald’s Signals Pressure - Blo…
archived 2 Oct 2025 17:33:23 UTC
What Do Vacancies Tell Us About Rural Housing Costs? It’s Complicated. | The Daily Yonder
Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. Subscribe to get a
What Happens If No One Reads
With AI able to quickly summarize everything from self-help books to great novels, we need to remind ourselves why we read in the first place, writes Spencer Klavan.
What Does Palantir Actually Do?
Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it.
I've Seen Enough
On the Humiliation of a Republic
Government shutdowns and disagreements in federal funding
As one might expect, Congress is having trouble figuring out how to fund the government, which is likely headed towards a shutdown. For the New York Times, Lazaro Gamio charted the history of fundi…
How technocracy made us doubt progress
It bundled progress and authoritarian control, and society rebelled against both.
The Case Against Generative AI
Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth
Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I've ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 words. I've written it specifically to be read at your leisure — dip in and out
Applying for jobs is so fucking embarrassing
The rituals, the portals, the silence, the begging, the shame.
That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus
It's just normal crime
The Cost of the AGI Delusion: By Chasing Superintelligence, America Is Falling Behind in the Real AI Race
By chasing superintelligence, America is falling behind in the real AI race.
The Bolshevik Seizure of Power in October 1917: Coup d’État or Revolution?
This lecture was delivered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on April 18, 1995.
Your boomer parents are probably living in a house too big for them. They're frozen in place because of taxes, top economists say | Fortune
Nearly 6 million older Americans reside in houses far larger than necessary, while growing families are crammed into spaces that are too small.
The eerie silence of automation
The machine that took your task and your story.