Tucson's Molly Holzschlag, known as 'the fairy godmother of the web,' dead at 60
Rest in peace, Molly. We've lost one of the really good people who made the web better. #Technology [Link]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
Our Self-Driving Cars Will Save Countless Lives, But They Will Kill Some of You First
“In a way, the people our cars mow down are doing just as much as our highly paid programmers and engineers to create the utopian, safe streets of tomorrow. Each person who falls under our front bumper teaches us something valuable about how humans act in the real world.” #AI
The racist would-be CEO king
You’ve all heard about Elon Musk blaming the Anti-Defamation League for the erosion of Twitter/X’s value over the last year. Advertising revenue is down by 60%. This, of course, has nothing at all to do with the precipitous rise in hate speech on the platform since
Non-news sites expose people to more political content than news sites. Why?
Two thirds of the political content people consume come from non-news sites. And most of the news content people read is not overtly political. Instead, it's mostly coming from entertainment - which has no ethical need to report factually. #Media [Link]
Why the United States undercounts climate-driven deaths
Another way the effect of the climate crisis is understated: climate deaths are undercounted. Changing this state of affairs is possible but requires effort, training, and resources. In the meantime, many people still don’t understand how serious the crisis actually is. #Climate [Link]
Naomi Klein's "Doppelganger"
“Fundamentally: Klein is a leftist, Wolf was a liberal. The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color.” #Media [Link]
Victims of forced sterilization in California prisons entitled to reparations
One thing I learned from this story is that forced sterilization of inmates has still been widespread in the 21st century in America. Ghoulish. #Society [Link]
Building a wide news commons
Doc Searls writes about what he calls wide news: Local and regional papers covered politics, government, crises, disasters, sports, fashion, travel, business, religion, births, deaths, schools, and happenings of all kinds. They had reporters assigned across all their sections. No other medium could go as wide. Doc’s argument is
I don't want my software to kill people
Dave Winer poses: If you think of yourself as an "open source developer" please ask yourself this question. Are you as committed to freedom for people who use your software as you are to freedom for developers? Not just freedom to modify the source code, but freedom to
AOC urges US to apologize for meddling in Latin America: ‘We’re here to reset relationships’
Yes. Absolutely this. And everywhere. #Democracy [Link]
Working mothers reach record high, above pre-pandemic levels
Flexible work from home policies have allowed more mothers with young children to join the workforce than ever before. Yet another reason why these policies are positive for everyone and should not just stick around but be significantly expanded. #Labor [Link]
The notable list: September 2023
This is my monthly roundup of the links, books, and media I found interesting. Do you have suggestions? Let me know! Apps + Websites Productivity iA Presenter. I’ve been really enjoying this. It does have the unfortunate effect of reducing the time you spend faffing with slide design and font