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Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werdmuller

Feds Blacklist Tornado Cash, Ban Ethereum Mixing Tool in US

“In a Monday announcement, the body added the Tornado Cash website and a long list of Ethereum addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals list, banning American citizens from using the tool or transacting with these addresses.”  #Crypto [Link]

08 Aug 2022

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff leans in to being a voice for gender equity

“Emhoff is the first second gentleman to the first woman vice president, and for him, tackling gender inequality in ways big and small felt like a natural, and critical, component of creating this role. He is actively attempting to model for others what it means to be an ally in

08 Aug 2022

Newsletter housekeeping

If you’re subscribing via email, heads up that I’m thinking about changing my newsletter engine, possibly to Buttondown. You shouldn’t see anything particularly different - and if you’re subscribing via RSS, nothing will change at all. But, to be honest, I’ll be paying a lot

08 Aug 2022

Performative productivity and building a culture that matters

I recently heard a story about a company that, when determining who would be laid off in a downsizing event, asked team leads to rank their teams based on who would be most likely to work on the weekend. Mind-blowingly, while it’s obviously (or hopefully obviously) immoral, this practice

07 Aug 2022

Economic consequences of major tax cuts for the rich

“We find tax cuts for the rich lead to higher income inequality in both the short- and medium-term. In contrast, such reforms do not have any significant effect on economic growth or unemployment.”  #Society [Link]

07 Aug 2022

Covid

Just because some people can pretend COVID is over, doesn’t mean it actually is

“People are still dying of COVID and even more people are getting long COVID (which we’re seeing develop into myalgic encephalomyelitis for many long haulers, and trust me, you don’t want it). The CDC and Food and Drug Administration have mostly abdicated their responsibility to prevent infections, focusing

07 Aug 2022

It's Manly Man Summer at the Claremont Institute

“In a piece titled “Men and the Future of America,” Klingenstein praises senator Josh Hawley for a speech trumpeting the “masculine virtues.” And what are those? They are, according to Klingenstein, “stoicism, competitiveness, conquest, achievement and aggression.” These are qualities to be managed, not repressed, because repressing them turns them

07 Aug 2022

How the Claremont Institute, home to Trump lawyer John Eastman, rose and fell

“Lewis said he agreed with Claremont leaders that the country is locked in a cold civil war. “Our country is upside down,” he said. “It’s unrecognizable.” He praised the program and its focus on “the myth of systemic police racism.” […] “They’re trying to train people to take a

07 Aug 2022

The Dangerous Ideas of “Longtermism” and “Existential Risk”

“By reducing morality to an abstract numbers game, and by declaring that what’s most important is fulfilling “our potential” by becoming simulated posthumans among the stars, longtermists not only trivialize past atrocities like WWII (and the Holocaust) but give themselves a “moral excuse” to dismiss or minimize comparable atrocities

06 Aug 2022

Alex Jones must pay $50m for Sandy Hook hoax claim

“Despite retracting his claims about Sandy Hook, Jones has continued to use his media platform to argue the case was rigged against him and claimed that members of the jury pool "don't know what planet they're on". His Infowars website depicted the judge being

05 Aug 2022

Facial recognition smartwatches to be used to monitor foreign offenders in UK

“Through their opaque technologies and algorithms, they facilitate government discrimination and human rights abuses without any accountability. No other country in Europe has deployed this dehumanising and invasive technology against migrants.”  #Society [Link]

05 Aug 2022

French Scientist's Photo of ‘Distant Star’ Was Actually Chorizo

“But a few days later, Klein revealed that the photo he tweeted was not the work of the world’s most powerful space telescope, as he had in fact tweeted a slice of chorizo sausage.”  #Science [Link]

05 Aug 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.