I realized some time ago that all the ways I want America to change just bring it closer to being Europe. Like, what if we had this can-do attitude and all the good parts without the guns and with universal healthcare, real education, unprocessed food without sugar in it, a
Technology
[Mark Lemley on LinkedIn] Meta's lawyer in its AI case has fired them as a client, and is not beating around the bush as to why: "I have struggled with how to respond to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness.
Technology
[Andrew J. Hawkins at The Verge] I think this is the wrong kind of protectionism: "The Biden administration finalized a new rule that would effectively ban all Chinese vehicles from the US under the auspices of blocking the “sale or import” of connected vehicle software from “countries of concern.
Fediverse
[Free Our Feeds] The non-profit social media foundation space is really heating up. Which is not a bad thing! Enter Free our Feeds: "It will take independent funding and governance to turn Bluesky’s underlying tech—the AT Protocol—into something more powerful than a single app. We want
Fediverse
[Mastodon] Mastodon is growing up: "Simply, we are going to transfer ownership of key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components (including name and copyrights, among other assets) to a new non-profit organization, affirming the intent that Mastodon should not be owned or controlled by a single individual. [...] We are in
Fediverse
[Social Web Foundation] The Social Web Foundation's statement about Meta's moderation changes is important: "Ideas matter, and history shows that online misinformation and harassment can lead to violence in the real world. [...] Meta is one of many ActivityPub implementers and a supporter of the Social
Notable Links
[Adria R Walker at The Guardian] A full century after the Bureau of Investigation blamed the Tulsa race massacre on Black men and claimed that the perpetrators didn't break the law, the DoJ has issued an update: "“The Tulsa race massacre stands out as a civil rights
In Oxford, my hometown, the flagship Blackwell’s bookshop looks like any ordinary bookstore at ground level. But if you go down a set of stairs, you find yourself in the Norrington Room: one of the largest rooms full of books in the world. The shelves expand out around you
Notable Links
[Jared White] I've been thinking about this paragraph since I read it: "In times past, we would worry about singular governmental officials such Joseph Goebbels becoming a master of propaganda for their cause. Today’s problem is massively scaled out in ways Goebbels could only dream of:
We live in a world where right-wing nationalism is on the rise and many governments, including the incoming Trump administration, are promising mass deportations. Trump in particular has discussed building camps as part of mass deportations. This question used to feel more hypothetical than it does today. Faced with this
Technology
[Mike Masnick in TechDirt] Mark Zuckerberg is very obviously running scared from the incoming Trump administration: "Since the election, Zuckerberg has done everything he can possibly think of to kiss the Trump ring. He even flew all the way from his compound in Hawaii to have dinner at Mar-A-Lago
Technology
[Rae Morey at The Repository] The bananas activity continues over at Automattic / Matt Mullenweg's house: "Members of the fledgling WordPress Sustainability Team have been left reeling after WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg abruptly dissolved the team this week. [...] The disbandment happened after team rep Thijs Buijs announced in
