I'm a citizen of Lexington, Kentucky, the United States, the world, and the digital sphere. Politically, I care about equality (and changing structures to support it), elections (that is, making them more fair and representative), and electronics (or, rather, their impact on society).
I am a believing agnostic in Community of Christ with a (mostly) cherished past as a (mostly) literalist Mormon.
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🔗 linkblog: just read 'Majority of Americans support national data privacy standards: poll | TheHill'
- kudos:This means we’re going to get some soon, right? link to ‘Majority of Americans support national data privacy standards: poll | TheHill’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Despite Arrests And Setbacks, Far-Right Proud Boys Press New Ambitions : NPR'
- kudos:Worrying read but important one. link to ‘Despite Arrests And Setbacks, Far-Right Proud Boys Press New Ambitions : NPR’
- kudos:
Something feels characteristically Utah about this Park City company trying to turn graham crackers into a rugged frontier food while conveniently omitting its origins in the temperance movement.
🔗 linkblog: just read 'IRS Reports Your Taxes Specifically Were Spent To Drone-Strike Kids'
- kudos:I get that this is The Onion and that this isn’t how taxes work, but this article still fees like a gut punch. link to ‘IRS Reports Your Taxes Specifically Were Spent To Drone-Strike Kids’
- kudos:
I think you can be glad a villain got unmasked but uneasy that Batman’s the one who did it.
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Pentagon Acknowledges Aug. 29 Drone Strike in Afghanistan Was Tragic Mistake - The New York Times'
- kudos:What a heartbreaking story. We need to rethink our relationship with drones—and war. link to ‘Pentagon Acknowledges Aug. 29 Drone Strike in Afghanistan Was Tragic Mistake - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Apple and Google Remove ‘Navalny’ Voting App in Russia - The New York Times'
- kudos:This is maybe the best example I’ve seen of app stores being a problematic model. Is there an Android app that could be sideloaded? Definitely isn’t for Apple, and that’s shameful. link to ‘Apple and Google Remove ‘Navalny’ Voting App in Russia - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Political parties complained Facebook’s algorithm promoted polarization - The Verge'
- kudos:What a read. Platforms don’t just host content, they manipulate that content. link to ‘Political parties complained Facebook’s algorithm promoted polarization - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Secret Facebook program reportedly let celebrities avoid moderation - The Verge'
- kudos:Bookmarking this for my content management class. link to ‘Secret Facebook program reportedly let celebrities avoid moderation - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | Which Victims of 9/11 Get Remembered? - The New York Times'
- kudos:A very powerful read. I was not politically confident as a teenager, but I remember already feeing uneasy with how the attacks were being evoked within a couple of years. A couple of decades later, I think we all need to be asking the hard questions. link to ‘Opinion | Which Victims of 9/11 Get Remembered? - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'How Wikipedia grew up with the war on terror.'
- kudos:Great read on what’s become perhaps the most defensible platform on the social web (though Wikipedia certainly still has its problems). link to ‘How Wikipedia grew up with the war on terror.’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'ProtonMail removed “we do not keep any IP logs” from its privacy policy | Ars Technica'
- kudos:On the internet, more and more people can learn you’re a dog. link to ‘ProtonMail removed “we do not keep any IP logs” from its privacy policy | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Kentucky Schools Struggle With Coronavirus Outbreaks - The New York Times'
- kudos:Oh good, we’re making the national news on this. link to ‘Kentucky Schools Struggle With Coronavirus Outbreaks - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'U.S. Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives'
- kudos:Sobering read. link to ‘U.S. Global War on Terror Has Taken Nearly 1 Million Lives’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Ivermectin misinformation has poisoned Amazon’s platform, with few fixes planned - The Verge'
- kudos:Happy to say that my local indie bookstore does not have this problem. link to ‘Ivermectin misinformation has poisoned Amazon’s platform, with few fixes planned - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | Worrying About Your Carbon Footprint Is Exactly What Big Oil Wants You to Do - The New York Times'
- kudos:Compelling reminder that climate change needs systemic—not individual—responses. link to ‘Opinion | Worrying About Your Carbon Footprint Is Exactly What Big Oil Wants You to Do - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'New Chapter of Afghanistan War: U.S. Drone Strike Kills Family'
- kudos:What a gut-wrenching story. Drone strikes are bad news. link to ‘New Chapter of Afghanistan War: U.S. Drone Strike Kills Family’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'We Used to Write. How to keep writing human in a world of… | by Colin Horgan | Aug, 2021 | OneZero'
- kudos:Very interesting piece on the relationship between technology and writing. link to ‘We Used to Write. How to keep writing human in a world of… | by Colin Horgan | Aug, 2021 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'My Neighbor’s Door Camera Faces My Apartment. Is That Legal? - The New York Times'
- kudos:A great example of Ring cameras being gross. link to ‘My Neighbor’s Door Camera Faces My Apartment. Is That Legal? - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'The most popular posts on Facebook are plagiarized - The Verge'
- kudos:Interesting take on inauthentic content on Facebook. link to ‘The most popular posts on Facebook are plagiarized - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Surveillance Startup Brings Police Tech to Neighborhoods - Bloomberg'
- kudos:Nope nope nope nope. If plate readers are going to become more common, I’ve got to start biking more places. Not that that will protect against Ring. 🤮🤮🤮 link to ‘Surveillance Startup Brings Police Tech to Neighborhoods - Bloomberg’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Vaccine Skeptic Does Own Research By Enrolling 45,000 Friends In Double-Blind Clinical Trial'
- kudos:The Onion wins again. link to ‘Vaccine Skeptic Does Own Research By Enrolling 45,000 Friends In Double-Blind Clinical Trial’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Joe Rogan, confined to Spotify, is losing influence - The Verge'
- kudos:I am only peripherally aware of Joe Rogan and don’t get great vibes from what I see, so I don’t really have any investment in how his podcast is doing. That said, this does speak to my concerns that Spotify’s attempts to land exclusive podcasts are threatening one of the last (and best) parts of the open web we’ve managed to hold onto. Also, very interesting use of digital methods here!
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Samsung says it can remotely disable stolen TVs - The Verge'
- kudos:This is one of those features that sounds great but that I find absolutely terrifying. I hate smart TVs so much. link to ‘Samsung says it can remotely disable stolen TVs - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'The Giftschrank offers a path for social media companies on content moderation transparency.'
- kudos:Interesting proposal for a difficult issue. link to ‘The Giftschrank offers a path for social media companies on content moderation transparency.’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'A Thumbs Down for Streaming Privacy - The New York Times'
- kudos:I have been thinking recently about streaming as a compromise in internet-era IP disputes, but this shows one reason that it’s not good enough a compromise. link to ‘A Thumbs Down for Streaming Privacy - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'As demand for bikes surged, Amazon got in the way - The Verge'
- kudos:Since the beginning of the pandemic, I’ve spent a lot of money at my local bookstore and bikeshop, and it kills me that Amazon is threatening both. Granted, I haven’t been able to completely cut the Amazon cord (and I have friends who have only survived the past 18 months because of the company), but there has to be a better way. link to ‘As demand for bikes surged, Amazon got in the way - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook's Most Viewed Article In Early 2021 Raised Doubt About COVID Vaccine : NPR'
- kudos:I agree that it’s difficult to define misinformation in cases like this, but “cleaning house before inviting company” is absolutely a problem if the mess is what we’re coming to evaluate. Even a fact-based article can be used to misinformative ends, and it’s important that we know things like that are happening. link to ‘Facebook’s Most Viewed Article In Early 2021 Raised Doubt About COVID Vaccine : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'In Iowa, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz Take Trump's Baton - The New York Times'
- kudos:Every time I read a story like this, I think of how much we need ranked-choice voting in the US. I’m not inclined to vote for any Republican right now, but there are plenty I’d rank above these two if given the chance. I also wish I could have ranked Charles Booker AND Amy McGrath above Mitch McConnell back in November. link to ‘In Iowa, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz Take Trump’s Baton - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Now that machines can learn, can they unlearn? | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Gotta admit that I’d never thought about what we should do about algorithms trained on data that’s subject to a deletion request. Interesting article. link to ‘Now that machines can learn, can they unlearn? | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook, Fearing Public Outcry, Shelved Earlier Report on Popular Posts - The New York Times'
- kudos:This is quite the read. link to ‘Facebook, Fearing Public Outcry, Shelved Earlier Report on Popular Posts - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Don’t overthink it: Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot is a joke - The Verge'
- kudos:Good read. link to ‘Don’t overthink it: Elon Musk’s Tesla Bot is a joke - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'OnlyFans Says It Is Banning Sexually Explicit Content - The New York Times'
- kudos:This is the sort of thing that Gab will decry if they’re serious and consistent about their supposed pro-free speech, anti-deplatformization stand. My bet, though, is that Torba writes a blog post in the next week arguing that porn isn’t free speech and good on banks for cracking down on OnlyFans. link to ‘OnlyFans Says It Is Banning Sexually Explicit Content - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Pluralistic: 19 Aug 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
- kudos:Cory Doctorow has THOUGHTS about data. I may use this in my data science class this semester. [link to ‘Pluralistic: 19 Aug 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow](https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/19/failure-cascades/
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Amazon reportedly plans to open its own department stores - The Verge'
- kudos:Amazon is just too big. This line stood out: “Amazon is now in the odd position of replacing stores that it helped kill off.” link to Amazon reportedly plans to open its own department stores - The Verge
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | The Illusion of Privacy Is Getting Harder to Sell - The New York Times'
- kudos:This blurb stood out to me: “Apple says, relentlessly, that privacy is the central feature of its iPhones. But as the photo scanning demonstrates, that’s true only until Apple changes its mind about its policies.” Seems to me we shouldn’t be dependent on tech companies’ decisions to ensure privacy. link to Opinion | The Illusion of Privacy Is Getting Harder to Sell - The New York Times