Ben Werdmuller

Documenting and Debunking Dubious Footage from Ukraine’s Frontlines

“With every alleged provocation a potential pretext for conflict, Bellingcat has decided to track and detail such claims as well as the circumstances surrounding them.” [Link]

Facebook Allows Praise of Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion

“Facebook will temporarily allow its billions of users to praise the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit previously banned from being freely discussed under the company’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, The Intercept has learned.” [Link]

America’s most widely consumed cooking oil causes genetic changes in the brain

“Used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock, soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In all likelihood, it is not healthy for humans.” [Link]

Ukraine

I’m not remotely qualified to talk about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in any level of competent detail, but I am qualified to discuss my feelings about it. These things seem to rarely be fought on real principles; instead, war puts ordinary peoples’ lives on the line in the

Twitter is sharing safety tips in Ukrainian — including how to delete your account

“On Wednesday night, as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Twitter's Safety team began sharing tips in Ukrainian for how users in the country can cover their digital tracks to help keep themselves safe. That included details for deleting their accounts entirely.” [Link]

Protecting trans kids in Texas

NBC News: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care. Trans kids and their supportive parents need to be protected. This is the

Support open source that you use by paying the maintainers to talk to your team

“I think I’ve come up with a novel hack for the challenge of getting your company to financially support the open source projects that it uses: reach out to the maintainers and offer them generous speaking fees for remote talks to your engineering team.” This is really smart! [Link]

Missing my mother

They say grief ebbs and flows and sneaks up on you unexpectedly, and lately I’ve been missing my mother a lot. Today my phone showed me memories from this time last year. I was glad to see them, but they also made me cry. It’s been, what, eight

A Long Bet Pays Off

“The bet, to be revisited a decade and a year later, would be whether the URL of their wager at Long Bets would survive to a point in the semi-distant future.” And it did! [Link]

Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

“Within the workplace, we know that happier employees are more likely to emerge as leaders, earn higher scores on performance evaluations, and tend to be better teammates. We also know, based on substantial research, that happier employees are healthier, have lower rates of absenteeism, are highly motivated to succeed, are

I have no capslock and I must scream

“In a near future, a team of desktop computer designers are looking at the latest telemetry and updating the schematics of the hardware-as-a-service self-assembling nanohardware.” [Link]

The elaborate con that tricked dozens into working for a fake design agency

“But what those who had turned on their cameras didn't know was that some of the others in the meeting weren't real people. Yes, they were listed as participants. Some even had active email accounts and LinkedIn profiles. But their names were made up and their