Pluralistic: Tech monopolists use their market power to invade your privacy (20 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Pluralistic: Thinking the unthinkable (19 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
gafol - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Nothing more than a racist land grab
"A guy you used to hang out with and liked but weren't close to and haven't talked to in years and then is dead out of nowhere on Facebook" is one of those things I haven't gotten used to despite it happening with increasing regularity. A type of grieving that
Half the Story
Massachusetts passed historic police certification reform. But even with the POST Commission, the public can’t see which cops have been part of the “officer shuffle.”
Pluralistic: There’s no such thing as “shareholder supremacy” (18 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
Gen Z politicians are already making change, and they're starting with gun safety laws
David Hogg, a survivor of the 2018 Parkland school shooting, spoke at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on inspiring young people to run for office.
How should money laundering laws apply to DeFi?
Everyone agrees that money laundering laws apply to DeFi. The question is: how to apply them? DeFi, or decentralized finance , is an emergin...
Undercover as a hotel cleaner in Ireland: ‘Lifting the heavy mattress, I cry tears of rage and exhaustion’ | Saša Uhlová
We struggle to secure payslips or a schedule – and in an 11-hour shift I barely have time for a bathroom break, says Czech journalist Saša Uhlová
Big publishers think libraries are the enemy
The recent Second Circuit decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is only the latest battle in the war on libraries and the freedom to read.
Curtis Yarvin - Wikipedia
Curtis Guy Yarvin, also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American blogger. He is known, along with philosopher Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-democratic philosophical movement known as the Dark Enlightenment or neo-reactionary movement (NRx).
Dark Enlightenment - Wikipedia
The Dark Enlightenment, also called the neo-reactionary movement (sometimes abbreviated to NRx), is an anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian,[1] reactionary philosophical and political movement. The term "Dark Enlightenment" is a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment and apologia for the public view of the "Dark Ages".
Nick Land - Wikipedia
Nick Land (born 17 January 1962) is an English philosopher, who has been described as "the Godfather of accelerationism".[2] His work has been tied to the development of speculative realism.[3][4] He was a leader of the 1990s "theory-fiction" collective Cybernetic Culture Research Unit after its original founder cyberfeminist theorist Sadie Plant departed from it.[5][6] His work departs from the formal conventions of academic writing and embraces a wide range of influences, as well as exploring unorthodox and "dark" philosophical interests.[7]
The Dark Enlightenment, by Nick Land | The Dark Enlightenment
China Can Detect F-22, F-35 Stealth Jets Using Musk’s Starlink Satellite Network, Scientists Make New Claim
China has long expressed concern that the United States could use Space X’s Starlink satellite network in the event of a potential contingency in the region. However, with their latest experiment, the scientists have allegedly demonstrated that China could exploit Starlink to its own advantage instead. In a recent experiment, a Chinese scientist and his […]
Pluralistic: Anti-cheat, gamers, and the Crowdstrike disaster (16 Sep 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
We live in danger times
Down below we have a lovely career-spanning essay on the music of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and a review of their latest album Woodland. You'll need to be a paid subscriber to read it. You can also go directly to it here. Thank you for supporting this newsletter if
The Subprime AI Crisis
None of what I write in this newsletter is about sowing doubt or "hating," but a sober evaluation of where we are today and where we may end up on the current path. I believe that the artificial intelligence boom — which would be better described as a generative AI boom
Wherein the techbros are here to "disrupt" ordering drinks at a bar
Another group of smirking techbros have decided that rich people shouldn't have to follow the same rules as the poors. There's an app for that. LineLeap, backed by Y Combinator, lets people pay to skip lines at bars. LineLeap makes money by charging Ticketmaster-style convenience fees for certain passes. The company also imposes fees for "newfound revenue" on venues -- that is, revenue that ...
A brief history of diamond desirability – DW – 09/13/2024
They're the epitome of romance, glamour and status — but also have a dark side. A look at the many meanings of diamonds.
Capitalism Has Become An Ideology In Today's America. Here's How It Happened
What started as an economic system has become an all-encompassing force. That wasn't inevitable. NPR's Throughline examines a project that has taken hundreds of years — and is still developing.
Breaching the Trust Thermocline Is the Biggest Hidden Risk in Business
Companies have no way back from a sudden loss of trust
Revanchism - Wikipedia
Revanchism is the political manifestation of the will to reverse the territorial losses which are incurred by a country, frequently after a war or after a social movement. As a term, revanchism originated in 1870s France in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War among nationalists who wanted to avenge the French defeat and reclaim the lost territories of Alsace-Lorraine.
Stephen Fry: Musk and Zuckerberg have 'polluted culture'
The broadcaster said the tech bosses' companies had released "toxic particulates" into cultural life.
Fossil Fuels Received $5.9 Trillion In Subsidies in 2020, Report Finds
Voters’ ‘moral flexibility’ helps them defend politicians’ misinformation − if they believe the inaccurate info speaks to a larger truth
In a series of surveys, researchers studied when and why voters put up with inaccurate statements from their leaders.
Where does software innovation happen? A zoomable map
PLDB: a Programming Language Database. Build the next great programming language.
The Future is Analog (If You Can Afford It)
Maroussia Lévesque considers "analog privilege" and what understanding it can tell us about the detrimental effects of AI systems.
The Myth That the US is Rapidly Approaching Bankruptcy | naked capitalism
Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff take apart widespread myths about Federal spending and debts.
The sprawling ecosystem of Reddit’s Am I the Asshole
From TikTok to Two Hot Takes, everyone sucks here.