Ben Werdmuller
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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Who is Curtis Yarvin, the monarchist, anti-democracy blogger?

“Yarvin argues that a creative and visionary leader — a “startup guy,” like, he says, Napoleon or Lenin was — should seize absolute power, dismantle the old regime, and build something new in its place.” Genuinely frightening, and idiotic, stuff. #Democracy [Link]

25 Oct 2022

Fake books

“With GPT-3, we now have an infinitely-scalable technology that is years away from being able to enrich our lives, but is already more than capable of drowning out all remnants of authentic content on the internet. And because you can leverage this to earn money or sway opinions, that outcome

24 Oct 2022

Get Blogging!

A lot of people ask me how to get started blogging. I figure a lot more are going to want to know how as the major social media sites start to fade. So I made you a guide! Get Blogging! is your easy-to-use guide to starting to blog. It covers

23 Oct 2022

Airline hired for UK’s Rwanda deportations pulls out of scheme

“This is a victory for people power – for thousands who took action and for the torture survivors who stood up against the UK government’s cruel ‘cash for humans’ Rwanda scheme.“ Activism works.  #Society [Link]

22 Oct 2022

Could the Tory turmoil get even worse?

“As her premiership fell apart, Truss tried to find new bogeymen who she insisted were derailing the post-Brexit revolution, blaming an “anti-growth coalition” that included people with podcasts, Scottish nationalists and north London liberals.” My people!  #Democracy [Link]

22 Oct 2022

Microplastics found in human breast milk for the first time

“We would like to advise pregnant women to pay greater attention to avoiding food and drink packaged in plastic, cosmetics and toothpastes containing microplastics, and clothes made of synthetic fabrics.”  #Health [Link]

22 Oct 2022

Preventing the bait and switch by open core software companies

“The approach ensures that an open core company can’t switch to solely creating proprietary software. The charter also addresses other issues we have seen in open source projects like withholding security fixes and transparency issues.”  #Startups [Link]

21 Oct 2022

The end of Twitter

Elon Musk needs to complete his acquisition of Twitter by October 28 if he wants to avoid the company’s lawsuit against him. That’s really soon - a week from today as I write this post. The network has been a part of my life more or less since

21 Oct 2022

No, you can't pay me for a link

Every single day, I receive at least one email asking if I’ll accept cash for adding a link to someone’s website in an old post. I won’t. Not ever. Please stop asking. I can imagine a world where, if my website and newsletter became more of a

21 Oct 2022

The Commodordion

“The Commodordion is an 8-bit accordion primarily made of C64s, floppy disks, and gaffer tape.” Into it.  #Technology [Link]

21 Oct 2022

Pronouns

Over in Platformer, Casey Newton reports that MailChimp’s CEO Ben Chestnut left after writing an ill-advised email about sharing personal pronouns during onboarding: “Now, everything is incredibly politicized,” he said in the email. “I am finding that peeps are no longer motivated by meaningful work – they are motivated to

21 Oct 2022

How the first female Time Lord changed Doctor Who forever

“So what does it mean when shows such as Doctor Who increase diversity in front of and behind the camera? Mort says increased on-screen diversity will improve the self-esteem of those represented, and having behind-the-camera talent from communities being portrayed on-screen will ensure the authenticity of these narratives. “This way,

21 Oct 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.