Ask Damon: I want to redistribute my slave-owning ancestor's wealth
“Anyway, if you’re sincere in your desire to attempt to right your family’s wrongs, find those descendants, show them the money and then hand it to them.” #Society [Link]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
Class action against Oracle's worldwide surveillance machine
“Oracle’s dossiers about people include names, home addresses, emails, purchases online and in the real world, physical movements in the real world, income, interests and political views, and a detailed account of online activity.” #Technology [Link]
A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal.
““This is precisely the nightmare that we are all concerned about,” Mr. Callas said. “They’re going to scan my family album, and then I’m going to get into trouble.”” #Technology [Link]
A home on the web, revisited
I’ve been thinking a lot about redesigning my website, or even moving platforms. That’s a bit of an emotional decision, because my website runs on Known, a codebase I mostly wrote myself, and started while I was taking care of my mother post-lung-transplant. It’s the reason I’
The School for Good Mothers, by Jessamine Chan
A ton of ideas about parenting, society, and the present moment, crammed into an emotional near-future science fiction story. I wish the protagonist had been more sympathetic - but the future it paints is alarmingly plausible. #Fiction [Link]
Kids Born Near Fracking Sites More Likely to Have Leukemia, Study Says
“Children who are born near fracking sites are as much as three times more likely to be diagnosed with leukemia later on, according to new Yale research.” #Health [Link]
For years, Black trans women have been told their life expectancy is 35 years. That’s false.
“Willis says the statistic once communicated an urgency in the community. Today, she thinks trans people need more complicated stories.” #Health [Link]
What is a man?
What is a man? The only answer I really care about is “whatever you want it to be”. Like all men, I’ve spent my life in a context of weirdly reductive, gender essentialist expectations - a man is physically strong, competitive, aggressive, stoic - that I couldn’t live
Happiness Is Two Scales
“Instead, happiness and unhappiness are two separate, independent scales. A good life requires tackling each one separately.” #Society [Link]
How a theory about transgender contagion went viral
“The problem: Overwhelming evidence shows that your child almost certainly hasn’t been duped. Although some people do reconsider or reverse their transition, once a person starts identifying as trans, it’s quite unlikely they’ll change their mind. No matter how strongly you believe that the internet, social contagion,
The temperature threshold the human body can't survive
“When the wet bulb temperature gets above 95 degrees F, our bodies lose their ability to cool down, and the consequences can be deadly. Until recently, scientists didn’t think we’d cross that threshold outside of doomsday climate change scenarios. But a 2020 study looking at detailed weather records
Billy Bragg on the difference between the backlashes to Salman Rushdie and Jerry Sadowitz
“Over the past decade or so, Rushdie has sought to return to some sort of a normal life, despite the threat hanging over him. The fact that he continued to take the stage at literary events is a tribute to his belief in freedom of expression and he has been