Building American Dynamism
I do not subscribe to the future this a16z piece paints. The future is for and by the public, not locked up in private businesses. [Link]
Ben Werdmuller
Ben Werdmuller helps leaders at newsrooms, non-profits, and mission-driven organizations to navigate their biggest technology challenges.
A paperwork hurdle for trans people: COVID-19 vaccine cards
“Mahoney is one of several trans and nonbinary people who told The 19th they feel like they are being put in stressful situations where they are required to out themselves, or use their deadname. Some also feel like they are being left out of data collection on COVID-19 vaccination
‘Menace to public health’: 270 doctors criticize Spotify over Joe Rogan’s podcast
“The letter was first reported by Rolling Stone, which quoted Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago school of public health, calling Rogan “a menace to public health” for airing anti-vaccine ideology.” [Link]
Using Foreign Nationals to Bypass US Surveillance Restrictions
“What’s most interesting to me about this new information is how the US used the Australians to get around domestic spying laws.” The US and GCHQ have a similar arrangement, I think? [Link]
The startupification of tech
Over the last decade or two tech has become dominated by the startup: a small, new business that rapidly reinvents itself in an iterative process. Once upon a time, the aim of that process was - or at least, seemed like it was - to be as useful as possible to a
Fairness Friday: Project HOME
I’m posting Fairness Fridays: a new community social justice organization each week. I donate to each featured organization. If you feel so inclined, please join me. This week I’m donating to Project HOME. Based in Philadelphia, Project HOME aims to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty in
America
Last year, I drove across the country, twice. We were always going to go to the east coast. One of the last clear things my mother said to me, over a Zoom link to the hospital because I wasn’t allowed into her room because of covid protocols (until her
YC’s $500,000 Standard Deal
Wowzers. It’s going to be hard for other accelerators to compete with this. (Matter invested one tenth of this amount.) [Link]
Google Had Secret Project to ‘Convince’ Employees ‘That Unions Suck’
“A National Labor Relations Board ruling sheds light on a highly secret anti-union campaign at Google, that a top executive explicitly described as an initiative to “convince [employees] that unions suck.”” Gross. [Link]
Who owned slaves in Congress? A list of 1,700 enslavers in Senate, House history.
“More than 1,700 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries owned human beings at some point in their lives, according to a Washington Post investigation of censuses and other historical records.” Amazing work; a vital database. An important and troubling
The monoculture web
If you’d asked me a few years ago who won the browser wars, I would have said open standards: web pages were finally opening and rendering well no matter which browser you chose to use. There was a significant choice between rendering engines, chromes, and parent companies to pick
Oh, 2022!
SF author Charlie Stross’s stock take of where we are this year. Come for the cogent commentary on covid - stay for the link to the absolutely batshit community about quantum Bible changes. Insightful as always. [Link]