Commentary on links that caught my attention around the web.
Culture
[Jon Hicks] I love this sort of thing: "Usborne's The Detective’s Handbook and The Guide to the Supernatural captivated my imagination in equal measure. This site is an imagined combination of those books – an engaging thematic prompt for me to overcome the quandary of 'what
Technology
[Maggie Harrison Dupré at Futurism] File this under "good, but I can't believe this wasn't already banned": "Sweeping changes to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines aimed at cleaning up the polluted, confusing world of online product reviews went into effect on Monday, meaning
Notable links
[Joseph Cox at 404 Media] Without needing a warrant, police can track ordinary peoples' smartphone locations - including people who travel out of state to get abortion procedures. The implications are troubling: "“Warrantless law enforcement access to digital information related to reproductive health care, including location data, threatens
Notable links
[Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken, Yahya Abou-Ghazala, Audrey Ash, Kyung Lah, Anna-Maja Rappard, Casey Tolan, Lou Robinson and Byron Manley at CNN] "More than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and consumer advocacy groups reviewed by CNN, along with an analysis of campaign finance data and interviews with dozens
Notable links
[Timothy Snyder] Timothy Snyder on the seriousness of the Trump-Vance deportation plans and their implications: "Such an enormous deportation will requires an army of informers. People who denounce their neighbors or coworkers will be presented as positive examples. Denunciation then becomes a culture. If you are Latino, expect to
Fediverse
[Samantha Lai and Yoel Roth at Tech Policy Press] "Decentralized social media platforms offer the promise of alternative governance structures that empower consumers and rebuild social media on a foundation of trust. However, over two years after Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter sparked an exodus of users seeking
Technology
[Hannah Devlin, Tom Burgis, David Pegg and Jason Wilson at The Guardian] Quite a disturbing new startup coming to light in The Guardian: “The footage appears to show experimental genetic selection techniques being advertised to prospective parents. A Heliospect employee, who has been helping the company recruit clients, outlined how
Media
[Kirsten Eddy at Pew Research Center] The lede is a little buried here behind some pretty shocking top-line stats: "Today, 37% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say they have a lot of or some trust in the information that comes from social media sites. This is nearly on par
Technology
[Cory Doctorow] Cory Doctorow discusses how he reads writers like Molly White: "This conduit is anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power." I agree. I start every day
Climate
[Abrahm Lustgarten at ProPublica] "For a generation, conservatives — not just the far right, which Crusius appeared to identify with — had propelled the notion that climate change was a hoax fabricated so the government could impose new restrictions on the economy and society. Yet Crusius hadn’t denied climate change
Technology
[Dries Buytaert] "I'm excited to share an experiment I've been working on: a solar-powered, self-hosted website running on a Raspberry Pi." Lovely! The key seems to be a Voltaic 50-watt panel and 18 amp-hour battery, which run to around $300 in total. That'
Media
[James Salanga at The Objective] "Layoffs in journalism since 2022 have disproportionately impacted people of marginalized genders and people of color, according to a new report from the Institute of Independent Journalists (IIJ). It collects data from a survey with 176 journalist respondents who had undergone a layoff or