Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

The secret money fueling the conservative anti-ESG push

“This isn’t a grassroots movement, and it isn’t coming from the financial industry, where most experts argue that considering issues like climate is prudent for investors. “I think it’s motivated by politics,” says Witold Henisz, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “They think

05 Jan 2023

Facial Recognition Tech Used To Jail Black Man For Louisiana Theft - He's Never Been To Louisiana

“There were clear physical differences between Reid and the perpetrator in the surveillance footage, said Reid’s attorney. For example, there was a 40-pound difference in body weight and Reid had a mole on his face. […] Researchers have long noted racial biases in specific facial recognition software, and we’ve

04 Jan 2023

Journalists (And Others) Should Leave Twitter. Here’s How They Can Get Started

“Many journalism organizations and public entities, such as local governments, believe Twitter is essential because it’s a place people know they can turn to when there’s big news — and find information from “verified accounts” that (barring a hack) ensure the source is who it’s claiming to be.

04 Jan 2023

Publishers, you should start using Mastodon: 10 reasons why

“There are plenty of articles about why you should leave Twitter (or at least, cross-post to Mastodon) for ethical, safety, political, social, and security/privacy reasons. This post won’t do any of those things. Instead, all my arguments are about why it’s smart from a pure business, marketing,

04 Jan 2023

A Con Man Is Succeeding Me in Congress Today

“But for now, there is no getting around the fact that Mr. Santos’s con game is a manifestation of a growing political phenomenon of saying or doing anything, with no automatic consequences. Whether it be far-right election deniers, personal attacks that call for violence against opponents, claims of false-flag

03 Jan 2023

The Expanding Dark Forest and Generative AI

“Hard exiting out of this cycle requires coming up with unquestionably original thoughts and theories. It means seeing and synthesising patterns across a broad range of sources: books, blogs, cultural narratives served up by media outlets, conversations, podcasts, lived experiences, and market trends. We can observe and analyse a much

03 Jan 2023

Wanting a life doesn't make you less ambitious

From the Wall Street Journal’s account of workers becoming “less ambitious”: Many white-collar workers say the events of the past three years have reordered their priorities and showed them what they were missing when they were spending so much time at the office. Now that normalcy is returning, even

01 Jan 2023

Your Coworkers Are Less Ambitious; Bosses Adjust to the New Order

“Many white-collar workers say the events of the past three years have reordered their priorities and showed them what they were missing when they were spending so much time at the office. Now that normalcy is returning, even some of the workers who used to be always on and always

01 Jan 2023

Get Green Hosting

I’d been having real trouble finding truly green web hosts: places to host a website that directly use 100% renewable energy. But they’re out there - so I decided to pull them together into a single-page guide following the style I built for Get Blogging. Please check out

01 Jan 2023

Reading, watching, playing, using: December 2022

This is my monthly roundup of the books, articles, and streaming media I found interesting. Here's my list for December, 2022. Happy new year to everyone who celebrates it today! Apps + Websites Labor Picket Line Notifier. “An open-source browser extension that alerts you when you navigate to a

01 Jan 2023

Bring back personal blogging

“In the beginning, there were blogs, and they were the original social web. We built community. We found our people. We wrote personally. We wrote frequently. We self-policed, and we linked to each other so that newbies could discover new and good blogs. I want to go back there.” Me

31 Dec 2022

What I'm leaving behind in 2022

As part of The 19th’s non-denominational end-of-year celebration, we were asked what we were leaving behind in 2022. I gave an answer about corporate social media and Instagram in particular, but on reflection, there’s a lot more I want to leave behind. Year ends are both arbitrary and

31 Dec 2022
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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.