Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Build for you, too

I had a revelation about the book I’m writing at about midnight last night: something that elevates the whole idea and ties it together in a way that I didn’t think I’d even been looking for. It makes the idea more resonant for me, which is what

25 Mar 2023

Your reading should be messy

“After years of treating my books as if they ought to be preserved in a museum, I now believe that you should honor the books by breaking them. Read them all so messily! Fold them, bend them, tear them! Throw them into your backpack or leave them open in Jenga-like

25 Mar 2023

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin

A beautiful novel about work, friendship, love, and identity. I suppose it's about video games too, but not really; it could just as easily be about any creative act. I loved Zevin's writing, the melancholy story, and even the characters (although they've been maligned

25 Mar 2023

Judge Decides Against Internet Archive

“What fair use does not allow, however, is the mass reproduction and distribution of complete copyrighted works in a way that does not transform those works and that creates directly competing substitutes for the originals. Because that is what IA has done with respect to the Works in Suit, its

25 Mar 2023

Non-Disparagement Clauses Are Retroactively Voided, NLRB’s Top Cop Clarifies

“The general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a clarifying memo on Wednesday regarding the “scope” of a February ruling by the federal agency’s board that said employers cannot include blanket non-disparagement clauses in their severance packages, nor demand laid-off employees keep secret the terms of their

24 Mar 2023

How Loneliness Reshapes the Brain

“The problem with loneliness seems to be that it biases our thinking. In behavioral studies, lonely people picked up on negative social signals, such as images of rejection, within 120 milliseconds — twice as quickly as people with satisfying relationships and in less than half the time it takes to blink.

23 Mar 2023

Here’s the full analysis of newly uncovered genetic data on COVID’s origins

“The full analysis provides additional compelling evidence that the pandemic coronavirus made its leap to humans through a natural spillover, with a wild animal at the market acting as an intermediate host between the virus's natural reservoir in horseshoe bats and humans.”  #Health [Link]

23 Mar 2023

Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at George W. Bush says his only regret is he "only had two shoes"

“Al-Zaidi says he didn't throw his shoes in a moment of uncontrolled anger, but that he had actually been waiting for just such an opportunity since the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion. He said Bush had suggested that the Iraqi people would welcome U.S. forces

22 Mar 2023

Women are less likely to buy electric vehicles than men. Here's why.

“Given the current legislative and judicial situation in our country and my home state of Texas, as a LGBT woman it could be important for me to drive hundreds of miles without even stopping for gasoline, much less a charging station that might not be available.”  #Society [Link]

22 Mar 2023

To All the Novels I Never Published

“William Faulkner wrote two failed novels (his words) before he famously gave up writing for other people and began to write just for himself. The books he wrote after that volta are the ones that students still read for classes around the world.”  #Culture [Link]

21 Mar 2023

Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late

“The comprehensive review of human knowledge of the climate crisis took hundreds of scientists eight years to compile and runs to thousands of pages, but boiled down to one message: act now, or it will be too late.”  #Climate [Link]

21 Mar 2023

Press conference statement: Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive

“The Internet is failing us. The Internet Archive has tried, along with hundreds of other libraries, to do something about it. A ruling in this case ironically can help all libraries, or it can hurt.”  #Culture [Link]

20 Mar 2023
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Writing at the intersection of technology, journalism, and community.

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Ben Werdmuller explores the intersection of technology, democracy, and society. Always independently published, reader-supported, and free to read.