Below you will find pages that utilize the taxonomy term “Communities”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Addison Graham: Latter-day Saints should not admire Hungary’s ‘family values’'
Very happy to see this op-ed emerge—especially from a BYU student. Fidesz is not a party Latter-day Saints should praise or look up to.
link to “Addison Graham: Latter-day Saints should not admire Hungary’s ‘family values’”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New lawsuit challenges educational components of SB 150 | Lexington Herald Leader'
Glad to see action being taken against this law.
link to “New lawsuit challenges educational components of SB 150 | Lexington Herald Leader”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge'
It baffles me when platforms think “oh, but we can help you see more relevant ads” is a selling point. Also, “not sharing data outside Reddit” doesn’t help either—it’s still an invasion of privacy.
link to “Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'President of Hungary Discusses Faith and Family Values at BYU'
Look, I don’t know much about Hungarian politics, but it seems to me that it would take a hell of a lot of self-confidence to brag about an ally of Viktor Orbán visiting BYU. This feels like wading into the culture wars in a way that the LDS Church usually tries to avoid.
link to “President of Hungary Discusses Faith and Family Values at BYU”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '629 | Open Topics | Wallace B. Smith | Re-Post – Project Zion Podcast'
I love this interview so much and for so many reasons. I haven’t been a member of Community of Christ long enough to have personal connection with Wallace B. Smith, but I have a lot of respect for him.
link to “629 | Open Topics | Wallace B. Smith | Re-Post – Project Zion Podcast”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge'
Amazon is too big, and while I’m not a policy expert, I welcome government efforts to keep it in check.
link to “FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge”
Esther is an ironic heroine for conservative Christians
I’m pretty sure I remember exactly where I was when I realized that Esther 100% slept with the king before he chose her as his queen. I was sitting in a top-floor office in one of two villas on Chemin William Barbey in Chambésy, Switzerland. I lived on the bottom floor of the villa with some other office staff of the Switzerland Geneva Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this office was where I did my religious studies every morning before heading out into a larger office where I helped with legal, vehicle, and other assorted logistical issues for the mission.
Pete, mint brownies, and two competing visions of Mormonism
Pete and Sarah were mainstays of my Mormon experience growing up. Their oldest—a famously rowdy boy with several rowdy younger brothers—was present on the Sunday when I was introduced in children’s classes as a newcomer to the congregation. When I outgrew children’s classes and made my way to youth Sunday School, Pete was our teacher for a while—the kind of teacher who tried to suppress a giggle (and usually unsuccessfully) whenever the word “ass” (especially “dumb ass”) appeared in the KJV.
Leo Tolstoy and Nephi
One of the more awkward passages in the Book of Mormon (at least from an ecumenical perspective—there’s much worse in there) is in I Nephi 3:220-222, where an angel has this to say with Nephi, the current narrator of the book:
“Behold, there are save two churches only: the one is the church of the Lamb of God and the other is the church of the devil. Wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Opinion | I Was Attacked by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I Believe It Was a Strategy To Change What You See Online. - The New York Times'
Roth’s perspective is valuable here. Scary stuff. [link to ‘Opinion | I Was Attacked by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I Believe It Was a Strategy To Change What You See Online. - The New York Times’](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/opinion/trump-elon-musk-twitter.html?unlocked_article_code=4tdIbFuKLW42ISeaU4acN26WTieKQcsLEoCyhJt1DC8dcAq9yCnJjyrbKLCEWm2hVWmWh-x94MKiw-I_OrqJ8JIYpDsdvQ4BFioWZ_RXCQ4ftJfFamVymL4ZnoK5RUQIhDdY-ZuJck3JBMeNXn5VYxEZ-tp8__DgJ_29osLV2tNCx4SZkrQrNtAyYPdzMK4asGiGrshlttyZF4arTjYH7ObwQo2-GSiVT3z3QovPSQ8Q4L9ggP7frVv1zKmIi4yukMwCGcqmRYnUy8pmnGPw0wWV3c9FMTUKuc6VM7kGy9gMnz_OUsQCiX8LR3v5Ls40VVkp1tb_c7PD4BiQ6lFP2Aw
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Barbie
I love a movie that leans into being bizarre because it knows exactly what it is and commits to it. I love a movie that uses metaphor to make important points. I love a movie that is self-aware and even self-critical. This was as good as I expected it to be.
the Christian symbolism of the name 'Mormon'
preface A quick preface: This is a post that I originally wrote nearly two years ago for By Common Consent. Lately, it’s been bugging me that I don’t have a version of it up on my own site, and since I haven’t had a lot of time this week to write anything original, I’m going to repost this here.
This post elaborates on one of my favorite close readings of the Book of Mormon.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Batshit Crazy Story Of The Day Elon Musk Decided To Personally Rip Servers Out Of A Sacramento Data Center | Techdirt'
What a wild story. link to ‘The Batshit Crazy Story Of The Day Elon Musk Decided To Personally Rip Servers Out Of A Sacramento Data Center | Techdirt’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Dendo: One Year and One Half in Tokyo, by Brittany Long Olsen
It’s weird to rate this so highly given how much anxiety it gives me to read it. Reading it four years ago is what forced me to confront how much baggage I had from my own Mormon missionary experience, but I know the author has her own complicated feelings about the book, and that helps some. At any rate, the book is so well done that I can’t help but rate it highly.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica'
Team Firefox foreverrrrrr link to ‘Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk shut off Starlink to prevent Ukraine attack on Russian ships, report says | Ars Technica'
Don’t love the idea of a fickle billionnaire having this much influence in world affairs. link to ‘Musk shut off Starlink to prevent Ukraine attack on Russian ships, report says | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/07/govern-yourself-accordingly/'
Appreciate Doctorow’s thinking here. link to ‘https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/07/govern-yourself-accordingly/’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools - The New York Times'
A secular state is good, but French laïcité consistently goes too far. link to ‘Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Elon Musk’s Impulses Transformed Twitter - WSJ'
What a mess this whole thing has been. link to ‘How Elon Musk’s Impulses Transformed Twitter - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marsha Blackburn Makes It Clear: KOSA Is Designed To Silence Trans People | Techdirt'
I’ll admit that I’ve been wary of Masnick’s hostility to KOSA, but Blackburn’s comments justify his stance. This ought to kill support for KOSA. link to ‘Marsha Blackburn Makes It Clear: KOSA Is Designed To Silence Trans People | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '*privacy not included | Shop smart and safe | Mozilla Foundation'
Well, this sucks. [link to ‘*privacy not included | Shop smart and safe | Mozilla Foundation’](https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/what-data-does-my-car-collect-about-me-and-where-does-it-go/
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'As X bleeds cash, Musk threatens Anti-Defamation League with defamation lawsuit | Ars Technica'
This feels like a page out of Gab’s playbook. link to ‘As X bleeds cash, Musk threatens Anti-Defamation League with defamation lawsuit | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: mes pensées sur 'En France, près de 300 élèves se sont présentées en abaya à l'école, malgré l'interdiction - rts.ch - Monde'
C’est bien stupide, une telle interdiction. Je suis pour un état séparé de la religion mais contre un état qui essaie de supprimer une religion minoritaire. link to ‘En France, près de 300 élèves se sont présentées en abaya à l’école, malgré l’interdiction - rts.ch - Monde’
who has the power to bind on earth?
One of this week’s lectionary passages includes Matthew 18:18-20, which David Bentley Hart renders:
Amen, I tell you, whatever things you bind on the earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you unbind on the earth will have been unbound in heaven. Again, [amen,] I tell you that if two among you agree on earth concerning everything they request, whatever it is, it shall come to pass for them, coming from my Father in the heavens.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gizmodo’s owner shuts down Spanish language site in favor of AI translations - The Verge'
Gizmodo’s owner seems way too optimistic about AI. link to ‘Gizmodo’s owner shuts down Spanish language site in favor of AI translations - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times'
I’m in no way Team Meta, but this may not be a terrible thing? link to ‘Meta May Offer Ad-Free Subscriptions for Instagram and Facebook in the E.U. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Persecution, Truth and the Trans Agenda – Wheat & Tares'
Solid post. I think it’s often helpful to ask whether Latter-day Saint logic applies to things that don’t get Latter-day Saint approval. link to ‘Persecution, Truth and the Trans Agenda – Wheat & Tares’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Walkaway, by Cory Doctorow
I just read this earlier this year, but it was too good not to revisit and it’s just as good in epub as it was in audiobook. Love this book.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Chroniques de Jérusalem, by Guy Delisle
It’s been less than a month since I read the English translation of this, which I already gave full marks. Yet, the original French version was even better. Delisle captures this city and its conflicts in a comic book better than any news story ever could.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, by David Treuer
In a way, I’m not in a great position to evaluate this book, because I’ve read shamefully little about indigenous populations in the Americas. That learning experience here, though, was a good one. Treuer doesn’t sugarcoat the past, but he celebrates the indigenous present and is even hopeful about the future. I have a lot more to read and learn, but this was a solid start.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'You Are Not Responsible for Your Own Online Privacy | WIRED'
Some important—if disheartening—observations from Marwick. link to ‘You Are Not Responsible for Your Own Online Privacy | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington KY police start using Fusus camera software | Lexington Herald Leader'
Ew, gross, no. link to ‘Lexington KY police start using Fusus camera software | Lexington Herald Leader’
40 books that have shaped my faith
A friend of mine recently asked whether I had a list of books “that have been particularly impactful or interesting,” especially in the realm of spirituality and religion—and suggested that if I didn’t already have such a list, I could put one together for one of my next blog posts. It took me a while to actually put the list together, but it’s ended up being a really interesting exercise. Of the forty books that I’ve picked, some have been more influential than others.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Scammers Used ChatGPT to Unleash a Crypto Botnet on X | WIRED'
Three cheers for ChatGPT or whatever. link to ‘Scammers Used ChatGPT to Unleash a Crypto Botnet on X | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why this chaplain sees her atheism as a gift : NPR'
Vanessa Zoltan is great, and I love what she shares here. link to ‘Why this chaplain sees her atheism as a gift : NPR’
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Oppenheimer
Fascinating subject matter, great acting, beautiful visuals, and lots to keep you thinking after you watch it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Legislature’s Transportation Budget Cuts Contributed to the JCPS Bus Debacle - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy'
I hadn’t thought about this before, but of course the same General Assembly complaining about the JCPS bus crisis is responsible for underfunding their bus system. link to ‘The Legislature’s Transportation Budget Cuts Contributed to the JCPS Bus Debacle - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Les Trois Néphites, Le Bodhisattva et le Mahdî, by Jad Hatem
I don’t remember how I discovered this book, but when ordering some books from France early in the pandemic, I couldn’t pass up the chance to read a Lebanese scholar’s treatment of the Three Nephites in the original French. That said, while there were interesting bits in here, I just don’t know that I follow academic French well enough to really get this. I have a PDF of the English translation that may be worth briefly revisiting.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk, Once Again, Tries To Throttle Links To Sites He Dislikes | Techdirt'
I’ve instinctively never liked t.co links, and this demonstrates what the problem with them are. link to ‘Elon Musk, Once Again, Tries To Throttle Links To Sites He Dislikes | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'OpenAI wants GPT-4 to solve the content moderation dilemma - The Verge'
Look, if an automated process could save human moderators from the awful work they have to do, I’d be all for it. I’m unconvinced that GPT-4 could do it, though. link to ‘OpenAI wants GPT-4 to solve the content moderation dilemma - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk keeps getting creepier - The Verge'
I think this is two weeks in a row that I’ve shared Casey Newton’s Platformer column, but that’s because it’s two weeks in a row he’s written something important. link to ‘Elon Musk keeps getting creepier - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Case of the Internet Archive vs. Book Publishers - The New York Times'
Good coverage of a worrying development. I’m sympathetic to authors’ worries here, but I also think they’re wrong. If digital is different than the physical, copyright considerations need to be more generous, NOT stricter. The Internet Archive is an important service, and I’m worried about the future. link to ‘The Case of the Internet Archive vs. Book Publishers - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The U.S. Government Wants To Control Online Speech to “Protect Kids” | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
There’s so much inane blathering about free speech on the internet that it’s easy to sometimes forget that it can be a real concern. Here’s one such example. link to ‘The U.S. Government Wants To Control Online Speech to “Protect Kids” | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
which Jesus?
In his closing sermon at the 2019 Community of Christ World Conference, prophet-president Steve Veazey asked a guiding question for the church:
Are we moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One?
It’s pretty clear from the formatting of this question—and even clearer from its translation into French and Spanish, the other working languages of Community of Christ—that Veazey’s phrase “the peaceful One” is meant to describe Jesus as a being who is inherently peaceful and who exemplifies peace for the whole world.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'AI hysteria is a distraction: algorithms already sow disinformation in Africa | Odanga Madung | The Guardian'
So many important points in this piece. link to ‘AI hysteria is a distraction: algorithms already sow disinformation in Africa | Odanga Madung | The Guardian’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Generative AI Is Making Companies Even More Thirsty for Your Data | WIRED'
This is not a future I look forward to (or a present I want to live in). link to ‘Generative AI Is Making Companies Even More Thirsty for Your Data | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Clarence Thomas accepted even more gifts from billionaires, new report finds : NPR'
This… just keeps getting worse. All justices, regardless of political stripes, need to ensre they aren’t being influenced. link to ‘Clarence Thomas accepted even more gifts from billionaires, new report finds : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zoom Became a Part of Daily Life. It Needs to Tell Users Exactly How It's Using Their Data | WIRED'
Lots of good stuff in here. link to ‘Zoom Became a Part of Daily Life. It Needs to Tell Users Exactly How It’s Using Their Data | WIRED’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Indignez-vous !, by Stéphane Hessel
I bought this pamphlet over a decade ago, in the gift shop at the Mémorial de Caen. I’d heard that it had influenced the Occupy protests, and even though I wasn’t sure I liked the Occupy protests (in 2012, I was a right-leaning centrist who would eventually vote Romney), I figured I ought to better understand them. I wasn’t sure I liked this pamphlet either when I first read it, but it’s been a while and my political views have marched leftward, so it was time for a rereading.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon | Ars Technica'
I’m not thrilled about AI’s ability to do this, but let’s be clear: Amazon is as much to blame here, and I like them even less. link to ‘Author discovers AI-generated counterfeit books written in her name on Amazon | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s time to change how we cover Elon Musk - The Verge'
Casey Newton has some good insight here. link to ‘It’s time to change how we cover Elon Musk - The Verge’
on hymns that acknowledge our shortcomings
Yesterday, during my regular Community of Christ congregation’s services, we sang hymn #72 from our hymnal, entitled “Gather Us In,” which the Beyond the Walls Choir has beautifully interpreted in the video below:
As we sang, I was struck by the last half of the second verse, which reads:
Gather us in, the rich and the haughty;
gather us in, the proud and the strong,
give us a heart so meek and so lowly,
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Now you can block OpenAI’s web crawler - The Verge'
This is a welcome step, but I’m concerned it’s an empty, distracting gesture—it certainly doesn’t solve the deeper issue. link to ‘Now you can block OpenAI’s web crawler - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zoom says its new AI tools aren’t stealing ownership of your content - The Verge'
Zoom’s responses to this are meaningless, empty corporate speak. I’m not concerned about owning my content, I’m concerned about others using it while affirming my ownership. And yes, I “consent” to it in the sense that I use Zoom, but that is meaningless consent and Zoom knows it. What a garbage response. link to ‘Zoom says its new AI tools aren’t stealing ownership of your content - The Verge’
things to offer vs. things to impose
A friend of mine invited me to attend a Community of Christ worship service tonight, a brief reference during which got me thinking about what Community of Christ folks call Joseph Smith’s “grove experience” but that I grew up referring to as his “First Vision.” This got me thinking (and reading) about the different accounts of this experience, including Smith’s 1832 account, where he writes:
I cried unto the Lord for mercy for there was none else to whom I could go and obtain mercy and the Lord heard my cry in the wilderness and while in the attitude of calling upon the Lord in the 16th year of my age a piller of light above the brightness of the sun at noon day come down from above and rested upon me and I was filled with the spirit of god and the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord and he spake unto me saying Joseph my son thy sins are forgiven thee.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Eight Months Pregnant and Arrested After False Facial Recognition Match - The New York Times'
Facial recognition software is gross. What a good—but terrible!—example that just because it comes from an algorithm doesn’t mean it’s right. When will we learn that the risks of wrong decisions outweigh the purported promise of the right ones? link to ‘Eight Months Pregnant and Arrested After False Facial Recognition Match - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Academic Book About Emojis Can’t Include The Emojis It Talks About Because Of Copyright | Techdirt'
This is dumb. Copyright is important, but this example shows how much we’ve made it overreach. link to ‘Academic Book About Emojis Can’t Include The Emojis It Talks About Because Of Copyright | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Nazis in the space program.'
Difficult read but an important one. link to ‘The Nazis in the space program.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Someone Has to Deliver Your Packages in This Scorching Heat | WIRED'
So many of our conveniences depend on someone else doing work we wouldn’t want to do ourselves. link to ‘Someone Has to Deliver Your Packages in This Scorching Heat | WIRED’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, by Guy Delisle
I have been a fan of Delisle’s for quite some time, but I’m still blown away by how good this is. The book isn’t political or polemical, but a slice-of-life comic done by a cartoonist living in East Jerusalem for a year brings walls, checkpoints, rockets, and attacks on Gaza to life in a subtle, compelling way. I used to follow this news a lot more, and Delisle made me feel like there was a lot I missed even then.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for But Where Is the Lamb? Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac, by James Goodman
A friend recommended this book to me, and I’m very glad I tried it. It’s a broad consideration of how the Binding of Isaac has been interpreted, imagined, and portrayed over the centuries—combined with the author’s personal struggles with the story. It was difficult sometimes as an audiobook (while I appreciated its breadth, it sometimes felt repetitious), but I got a lot out of it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Cleaning Up ChatGPT’s Language Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers - WSJ'
Everyone excited about generative AI needs to account for this kind of thing. We don’t pay enough attention to digital labor and the dehumanizing aspects of content moderation. link to ‘Cleaning Up ChatGPT’s Language Takes Heavy Toll on Human Workers - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Leaked Memo Shows TikTok Knows It Has a Labor Problem | WIRED'
I think this is a much bigger deal than any purported security risk. link to ‘A Leaked Memo Shows TikTok Knows It Has a Labor Problem | WIRED’
supersessionism and burdens of proof
On a friend’s recommendation, I’m currently reading (well, listening to) James Goodman’s But Where is the Lamb?, an interesting volume taking a look at the story of Abraham and the Binding of Isaac. This passage stood out to me yesterday:
To say that you prefer your church and its stories to another church and its stories is one thing. But to say that your church annuls another church (completes it, voids it, supersedes it) is quite another.
new revelation that confirms old ideas
I’m a fan of Dan McClellan’s YouTube channel—he posts a lot there (nearly everything is a repost from TikTok), and I watch most of what he posts. Yesterday, he posted an interesting video on the “Lucifer” name and character in the Bible, describing how traditional Christian ideas about the figure are all post-biblical innovations that don’t neceessarily line up with the text. In particular, the name “Lucifer” is an artifact of the Vulgate, and even in the Vulgate, the name itself is a reference to a Babylonian king, not to a fallen angel who became the devil.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Starts Bribing His Biggest Fans As He Admits The Company Is Still Burning Cash (Despite His Earlier Claims To The Contrary) | Techdirt'
Yet another wild story in the wild history of Twitter. link to ‘Elon Starts Bribing His Biggest Fans As He Admits The Company Is Still Burning Cash (Despite His Earlier Claims To The Contrary) | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com'
Lots to appreciate here. link to ‘Let the Platforms Burn: The Opposite of Good Fires is Wildfires | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Passion for Peace: Reflections on War and Nonviolence, by Thomas Merton
It took me six months to finally read this book, but it’s exactly what I hoped for, so it was worth the wait. Some of Merton’s essays are more compelling than others, but his fierce condemnation of war and advocacy for peace is moving. I’m sure I’ll be coming back to this.
polygamy and priorities
Growing up Latter-day Saint, I knew that polygamy was part of our past, but I was so defensive about it not being part of our present that I often failed to understand just how important it was to my ancestors (both literal and figurative). About a month ago, I stumbled on a passage in RLDS missionary Charles Derry’s autobiography (which I recently finished) that reminded me that polygamy was a huge prority for 19th century Latter-day Saints:
radical early Christianity
One of the biggest perks of working in academia is access to an academic library. Don’t get me wrong: I deeply appreciate and regularly visit my local public libraries, and kiddo and I have made a couple of visits to her school’s summer library hours (which is an amazing idea). There’s something about the breadth of an academic library, though, that can really come in handy sometimes. For example, I was recently reading an article by Dan McClellan on Bible translation in Latter-day Saint contexts and noticed with interest his reference to David Bentley Hart’s translation of the New Testament.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Hollywood's Nightmarish AI Proposal for SAG Actors'
This is horrifying. link to ‘Hollywood’s Nightmarish AI Proposal for SAG Actors’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️🖤🖤🖤 for Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual for Changing the World, by Rick Falkvinge
I really want to like this book. I am sympathetic to pirate politics, and I’m impressed with its sudden surge to power in Sweden and elsewhere. I even think many of the ideas in here are compelling and will probably come back to it despite my relatively negative review. The thing, though, is that I struggled through it, so it took me so long to read it that I probably don’t even remember enough to give it a fair review—except that that is itself kind of damning.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Congratulations! The US Is 32nd Worldwide On Broadband Affordability | Techdirt'
USA! USA! Seriously, though, bookmarking for future teaching. link to ‘Congratulations! The US Is 32nd Worldwide On Broadband Affordability | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'AI Junk Is Starting to Pollute the Internet - WSJ'
I’ve seen some reviews describe the new Mission Impossible movie (apparently featuring a malicious AI) as perfectly suited for our time of ChatGPT. I’m more worried about things like this: content farming, model collapse, etc. link to ‘AI Junk Is Starting to Pollute the Internet - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Something odd is happening when you try and search Twitter for Threads links - The Verge'
It appears that Musk’s “free speech absolutism” continues to be selective and self-serving. link to ‘Something odd is happening when you try and search Twitter for Threads links - The Verge’
text for today's Toronto Congregation sermon
As I wrote earlier in the week, I gave today’s sermon for the Toronto Congregation’s inclusive online worship service. The service was recorded and can be found at the YouTube link below:
I really enjoyed participating with Beyond the Walls. I had some idea of how much work they put into making this look like a professional production, but getting to peek behind the scenes and see how much work they put into juggling different cameras, testing and managing audio, and everything else made me really appreciate what they do all the more.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED'
Hear hear. Ring is a creepy company, and we shouldn’t support them. link to ‘Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gizmodo’s staff isn’t happy about G/O Media’s AI-generated content - The Verge'
I read that “chronological order of Star Wars” media piece mentioned here in io9 and I was baffled by how poorly done it was (not realizing it was done by AI and wondering how an io9 writer could get things so wrong). Using AI to content farm is a terrible idea. link to ‘Gizmodo’s staff isn’t happy about G/O Media’s AI-generated content - The Verge’
a favorite Community of Christ hymn
As I’ve written before, one of my favorite things about the Day One journaling app is the “On this Day” feature that lets me remember moments from my past—often moments I might have forgotten if I hadn’t journaleda bout them.
This morning, Day One reminded me of a hymn service my local Community of Christ congregation held a couple of years ago. I had been invited to share a memory of a favorite hymn.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots | Ars Technica'
I get that it’s straightforward language that everyone will get, but I think “uncensored” is the wrong word here. Content moderation is not (necessarily) censorship, and content moderation is good and helpful for tools like generative AI. link to ‘ChatGPT users drop for the first time as people turn to uncensored chatbots | Ars Technica’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Born Both: An Intersex Life, by Hida Viloria
I finally read this book weeks after picking it up from a local library and knowing I’d enjoy it. Viloria’s life story (like so many others’ stories) casually destroys sex and gender binaries. Reading about the experiences of intersex people was an important part of my beginning to reject those binaries several years ago, and I think anyone clinging to those binaries ought to hear from voices like Viloria’s. That’s not to say that other queerings of that binary are any less valid than being intersex, of course!
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It Turns Out Elon Is Speedrunning The Enshittification Learning Curve, Not The Content Moderation One | Techdirt'
I appreciate Masnick’s thinking, and I’m a big Doctorow fan, so it’s always neat to see them come together. link to ‘It Turns Out Elon Is Speedrunning The Enshittification Learning Curve, Not The Content Moderation One | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The environmentally conscious Fairphone 4 is finally coming to the US - The Verge'
This is very exciting! I’m far too locked into Apple’s ecosystem to seriously consider this right now (even this post is being composed thanks to Siri Shortcuts), but I hope this does well, because I’d love to own a Fairphone one day. link to ‘The environmentally conscious Fairphone 4 is finally coming to the US - The Verge’
upcoming sermon for Toronto Congregation of Community of Christ
Next Sunday, I’ll be giving the sermon for the Community of Christ Toronto Congregation’s Beyond the Walls inclusive online congregation, speaking on the Parable of the Samaritan (more often called the Parable of the Good Samaritan, but my sermon will explain why I’m going for that name instead). I had been planning to post about the sermon after the fact, but the links for the YouTube live events went up today, so I thought I might share them ahead of time.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️🖤🖤 for Autobiography of Elder Charles Derry, by Charles Derry
This is a fascinating bit of history. Derry was an early convert to Mormonism who emigrated from England to Utah, became disgusted with polygamy and what he saw as an abusive system of tithing and church governance, and returned to the American Midwest, where he joined the RLDS church and became a leader and missionary in that denomination. Like The Giant Joshua, it’s odd to read something that is so clearly “a pioneer story” but isn’t uniformly positive.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'DeSantis slammed over Trump attack ad over LGBTQ rights : NPR'
This is disgusting and reprehensible. I refuse to watch the video myself, but it sounds like it wouldn’t be out of place on the Gab groups I’ve looked at for research projects. link to ‘DeSantis slammed over Trump attack ad over LGBTQ rights : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Fanfic Sex Trope That Caught a Plundering AI Red-Handed | WIRED'
This is a wild, compelling story that I missed when it first came out. Glad to be reading it now. link to ‘The Fanfic Sex Trope That Caught a Plundering AI Red-Handed | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit Won’t Be the Same. Neither Will the Internet | WIRED'
Good focus on the digital labor aspects of this whole thing. I sympathize with Reddit for not wanting to provide free value for generative AI (this is one of the trickiest parts of that conversation), but Reddit’s users are right to balk at providing free value for the platform. link to ‘Reddit Won’t Be the Same. Neither Will the Internet | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Internal Twitter Video Reveals Twitter Bent Over Backwards To Protect Trump And Pro-Trump Insurrectionists | Techdirt'
Helpful summary by Masnick; bookmarking for later. link to ‘Internal Twitter Video Reveals Twitter Bent Over Backwards To Protect Trump And Pro-Trump Insurrectionists | Techdirt’
some more on Abraham
Almost immediately after finishing yesterday’s post, an idea occurred to me that I wanted to chase a little further. I’ve mentioned before my admiration for Thomas Römer, a Germano-Swiss Bible scholar who teaches at the Collège de France and whose lectures are freely available in podcast form. I’ve listened to a lot of those lectures, and I remembered that Römer had made some comments about the rhetorical purposes of the Abraham story that seemed relevant to my wrestling with the story of the Binding of Isaac.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private - The Verge'
C’mon Reddit. link to ‘Reddit is telling protesting mods their communities ‘will not’ stay private - The Verge’
on Abraham and syntax
I’ve alluded to the binding of Isaac in previous posts, and I hope that what I’ve written before makes it clear how uncomfortable I am with this story. Nonetheless, it’s one of the readings in this week’s Lectionary scriptures, and there is a part of Robert Alter’s translation of this story that does stick out to me. Here’s how Alter renders Genesis 22:2:
And He said, “Take, pray, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the Land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall say to you.
thinking about Lexington's pride flags
One of kiddo’s favorite podcasts is the delightful Forever Ago, each episode of which dives into the history of something specific, such as the weekend, Black cowboys, etc. Kiddo often listens to podcasts in the morning while waiting for (or eating) breakfast, and on Saturday morning, knowing that we were visiting Lexington Pride later that day, she pulled up the episode on the history of the rainbow Pride flag.
With that history fresh in our minds, I noticed something different about the rainbow flags that fly in downtown Lexington during hte month of June: Lexington does not fly the common six-stripe rainbow flag.
rejecting one fundamentalism to accept another
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a post about an important part of RLDS history that I mostly love but also get slightly annoyed by. In short, Wallace Smith, who was then prophet-president of the RLDS Church, was put on the spot by a local seminary professor, who asked the following question:
If our mutual studies of Christianity and the RLDS Church were to discovere that there was a discrepancy between what Jesus taught and what Joseph Smith taught, which would you accept?
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit pressures mods to end the blackout as they find new ways to protest - The Verge'
Perhaps most interesting thing here is official comment from Reddit. It’s not quite “auto-reply with a poop emoji territory,” but it might actually be worse? link to ‘Reddit pressures mods to end the blackout as they find new ways to protest - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit Tells Mods That Protesting By Changing Sub To NSFW Violates The Rules | Techdirt'
I’ve linkblogged a lot of stuff on Reddit lately, but this is a good summary and reaction, so I’m adding it to the list. link to ‘Reddit Tells Mods That Protesting By Changing Sub To NSFW Violates The Rules | Techdirt’
the pain of unfulfilled hope
Wil Gafney and her *Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church° continue to be a source of inspiration for me. For the past two weeks, her readings for the relevant Sundays of the season of Ordinary Time in the Christian liturgical year have begun with Samuel’s miraculous birth to Hannah. I’ve just now completed the reading for Proper 6 reading, in which Hannah’s pleas for a child despite her seeming infertility are answered.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit Experiments With Removing Mods, Blocking Attempts To Switch Subs To NSFW | Techdirt'
Lots of ugh here. link to ‘Reddit Experiments With Removing Mods, Blocking Attempts To Switch Subs To NSFW | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'In WWII, a segregated U.S. Army deployed to fight Hitler — and brought Jim Crow : NPR'
I had never heard about this story before. It’s tempting to think of World War II as “a good war,” but stories like this complicate it. How is this blatant racism compatible with fighting against the Nazis? link to ‘In WWII, a segregated U.S. Army deployed to fight Hitler — and brought Jim Crow : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit starts removing moderators behind the latest protests - The Verge'
I’m glad this article points out how much unpaid work mods do to make Reddit a place people want to go. They arguably add more value to the platform than employees do, and this strikes me as a bad move. link to ‘Reddit starts removing moderators behind the latest protests - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit Communities Still Dark As Protest Continues - The New York Times'
Reddit’s response continues to feel tonedeaf and sketchy to me. link to ‘Reddit Communities Still Dark As Protest Continues - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit CEO Triples Down, Insults Protesters, Whines About Not Making Enough Money From Reddit Users | Techdirt'
Here’s Masnick saying some of my thoughts but better—and adding some observations I would not have come to on my own. link to ‘Reddit CEO Triples Down, Insults Protesters, Whines About Not Making Enough Money From Reddit Users | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Here’s the note Reddit sent to moderators threatening them if they don’t reopen - The Verge'
Feels pretty sleazy to me. link to ‘Here’s the note Reddit sent to moderators threatening them if they don’t reopen - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit CEO Steve Huffman: Reddit ‘was never designed to support third-party apps’ - The Verge'
I get that any platform has to pay its bills, but Huffman keeps coming off as a real jerk. link to ‘Reddit CEO Steve Huffman: Reddit ‘was never designed to support third-party apps’ - The Verge’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Marry Me a Little: A Graphic Memoir, by Rob Kirby
This comic memoir of (same-sex) marriage has excellent art, tells a good story, and hits on very important points for the time we’re in. I picked it up on a whim and really enjoyed it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Thousands of Reddit communities remain dark as protest continues - The Verge'
Keep it up, subreddits! link to ‘Thousands of Reddit communities remain dark as protest continues - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely - The Verge'
What I appreciate about coverage of this from The Verge and Techdirt is the way that it draws attention to questions of digital labor. link to ‘Reddit communities with millions of followers plan to extend the blackout indefinitely - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'More than six thousand subreddits have gone dark to protest Reddit’s API changes - The Verge'
Good for them. Let’s hope it makes a difference. link to ‘More than six thousand subreddits have gone dark to protest Reddit’s API changes - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Critics of KY Gov. Andy Beshear recirculate drag queens photo | Lexington Herald Leader'
This just makes me like Andy more. Shame on Cameron and everyone else using queerphobia to influence an election. link to ‘Critics of KY Gov. Andy Beshear recirculate drag queens photo | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine | WIRED'
A good glimpse at content moderation, and why it’s important to do it correctly. link to ‘Inside 4chan’s Top-Secret Moderation Machine | WIRED’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for How to Resist Amazon and Why (Updated & Expanded), by Danny Caine
Look, this is the kind of book that I bought knowing already that I’d agree with its thesis, so maybe you shouldn’t read my review of it. Nonetheless, I think Caine does an excellent job of bringing together many of the arguments against Amazon. This company is bad news, and while it’s hard to escape it entirely, I think the world would be a better place if more of us did less to support it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '78 | Common Grounds | Trinity Sunday – Project Zion Podcast'
Really loving this (six year old) podcast episode. I don’t care much about the Trinity except when it’s understood in the ways that Karin Peter and Susan Ocley describe here. link to ‘78 | Common Grounds | Trinity Sunday – Project Zion Podcast’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'OpenAI says it could ‘cease operating’ in the EU if it can’t comply with future regulation - The Verge'
Last paragraph here is an important one: I’ve seen a lot of headlines about OpenAI calling for regulation, but it’s noteworthy that it’s hypothetical future regulation. link to ‘OpenAI says it could ‘cease operating’ in the EU if it can’t comply with future regulation - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content | Techdirt'
Masnick makes a good point here. I’m sympathetic to “for the kids” motivations, but I’m increasingly convinced that Masnick is right, that it’s meant to make bad policy sound impossible to argue against. link to ‘Heritage Foundation Says That Of Course GOP Will Use KOSA To Censor LGBTQ Content | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '584 | What’s Brewing | A Path Forward for Chicago – Project Zion Podcast'
Bookmarking this for later. Community of Christ isn’t very big in Kentucky, and I wonder how digital technologies could help connect us and provide people easier ways to visit us. This seems like an interesting model. link to ‘584 | What’s Brewing | A Path Forward for Chicago – Project Zion Podcast’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Is Teetering on the Glass Cliff | WIRED'
I was not familiar with the term “glass cliff,” so this was an insightful read. link to ‘Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino Is Teetering on the Glass Cliff | WIRED’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Restoration Scriptures: A Study of Their Textual Development, by Richard Howard
I picked up a copy of this book at the 2023 World Conference of Community of Christ, after it being on my wishlist for some time. It does an excellent job of examining the subjectivity of Restoration scripture by tracing its evolution over time. I remarked to a friend earlier this week that it’s a shame it was written in the 90s (and originally, the 60s) rather than now, when there’s so much more available to do this kind of work.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '10 Years After Snowden: Some Things Are Better, Some We’re Still Fighting For | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Can’t believe it’s been ten years; can’t believe we’re not collectively furious about this. link to ‘10 Years After Snowden: Some Things Are Better, Some We’re Still Fighting For | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pluralistic: The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that’s what you prefer) (17 May 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
I have been furious with Intuit since ProPublica did their great reporting on this, but I’ve continued to use TurboTax because the system is broken. Very excited for this news, and I appreciate Doctorow’s passionnate take. link to ‘Pluralistic: The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that’s what you prefer) (17 May 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Stream episode Mountain Meadows Massacre — What did Brigham Young know and when did he know it? | Episode 286 by Mormon Land podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud'
Good podcast episode; what stands out the most is the authors’ comments at the end that merely researching the book gave them nightmares. link to ‘Stream episode Mountain Meadows Massacre — What did Brigham Young know and when did he know it? | Episode 286 by Mormon Land podcast | Listen online for free on SoundCloud’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter ‘Shadowbans’ Bellingcat After Musk Attacks Them, Then Tries To Retcon A Nonsense Explanation | Techdirt'
Bellingcat does good work; Twitter continues to be a joke. link to ‘Twitter ‘Shadowbans’ Bellingcat After Musk Attacks Them, Then Tries To Retcon A Nonsense Explanation | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zoom will soon integrate Anthropic’s chatbot across its platform - The Verge'
Using AI for customer service is the stuff of my nightmares. link to ‘Zoom will soon integrate Anthropic’s chatbot across its platform - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Once Again, ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Caves To Authoritarian Censorial Bullies | Techdirt'
I know I can always count on Masnick to write this article when a story like this comes up. link to ‘Once Again, ‘Free Speech Absolutist’ Elon Musk Caves To Authoritarian Censorial Bullies | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google’s AI pitch is a recipe for email hell - The Verge'
Some good comments in here—especially on how AI enforces and normalizes certain kinds of writing instead of allowing us to determine what writing should look like. link to ‘Google’s AI pitch is a recipe for email hell - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The 'Mormon Moment' 10 years later: Why Joanna Brooks and Mitch Mayne left the public eye'
A great column from Jana. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years—or that I’ve changed so much in my own Mormonism over that time. link to ‘The ‘Mormon Moment’ 10 years later: Why Joanna Brooks and Mitch Mayne left the public eye’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Neighborhood Watch Out: Cops Are Incorporating Private Cameras Into Their Real-Time Surveillance Networks | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
This sounds worrying to me. Surveillance can and will be abused, and we should be wary about embracing it on this scale. link to ‘Neighborhood Watch Out: Cops Are Incorporating Private Cameras Into Their Real-Time Surveillance Networks | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
on doing—and asking—what is right
One of this week’s lectionary readings in Community of Christ (and presumably elsewhere) is in 1 Peter 3. As I was reading the NRSVUE rendering of this passage this morning, verses 13-17 stood out to me:
13 Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14 But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15 but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kelly Craft escalates anti-trans rhetoric, calls for excluding ‘transgenders’ from Ky. schools'
This is indefensible, and no amount of spin from a comms director can change how harmful this is. link to ‘Kelly Craft escalates anti-trans rhetoric, calls for excluding ‘transgenders’ from Ky. schools’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Spotify ejects thousands of AI-made songs in purge of fake streams | Ars Technica'
Content moderation is hard, and it’s especially hard at scale. Because AI makes doing things at scale easier, it necessarily makes content moderation harder. link to ‘Spotify ejects thousands of AI-made songs in purge of fake streams | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk threatens to re-assign @NPR on Twitter to 'another company' : NPR'
I feel like I say this whenever I post a link to a Twitter story, but I honestly can’t believe how dumb this stuff gets sometimes. Also, is Musk going to give someone else control of @ldschurch? link to ‘Elon Musk threatens to re-assign @NPR on Twitter to ‘another company’ : NPR’
the Book of Moses and the subjectivity of scripture
One of the more interesting passages of scripture produced by Joseph Smith Jr. is in Section 36 of the Community of Christ Doctrine and Covenants (or the Book of Moses in the Latter-day Saint Pearl of Great Price):
And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residee of the people, and he wept, and Enoch bore record of it, saying, How is it the heavens weeps and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
the graves we are called forth from
I read a passage in Wil Gafney’s A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church this morning that really stood out to me—especially as it related to two things I’ve recently written. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Easter hope, acknowledging that
[a literal] resurrection is something that’s hard for me to wrap my head around, but I figure that if I can try to muster the belief in the impossibility of the resurrection, I can have the belief that we can overcome racism, fix poverty, and solve other seemingly impossible tasks facing us.
affirming worship services and queerphobic campuses
I was disappointed this morning to see this article in the Salt Lake Tribune. The article reports that BYU professor Sarah Coyne “became the target of online bullying and hostile emails” after discussing “her child’s years of wrestling with gender dysphoria, including suicidal thoughts and agonizing mental health issues” in a class she was teaching. According to the article, this is something that she has done for several semesters, but this time, her action “made it into a critical article in a conservative off-campus newspaper… which was retweeted by Utah Sen[ator] Mike Lee on his personal Twitter account.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Red Team Blues (A Martin Hench Novel), by Cory Doctorow
I’m a couple of days late on writing this post: I started listening to the audiobook within hours of Doctorow sending out Kickstarter rewards on Monday and had it finished within a day. I often introduce Doctorow to others by saying that his books sometimes read like op-eds—but that that’s a good thing. I found that to be true in this book. I don’t know that I liked it as much as Walkaway (though I never expected to like that one!
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas agriculture department's new dress code based on 'biological gender' : NPR'
There’s no such thing as dressing according to one’s biological sex. Gender-based dress expectations are perhaps the best possible example of the social construction of gender. What inanity. link to ‘Texas agriculture department’s new dress code based on ‘biological gender’ : NPR’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for The Book of Forgiving, by Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu
I have enjoyed going through this book. It’s the kind of book that invites personal action instead of just letting you read it, and that’s felt overwhelming at times (particularly as my life has gotten busier in recent weeks), but it’s a good invitation, and I know I’ll need to revisit this slowly and deliberately to get the most out of it.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Suspends Reporter For Reporting On Twitter Hack, Using Same Policy Old Twitter Used To Block NY Post Hunter Biden Story | Techdirt'
I’m tired of reading Twitter news, but I’m professionally obligated to do so, no matter how dumb it gets. link to ‘Twitter Suspends Reporter For Reporting On Twitter Hack, Using Same Policy Old Twitter Used To Block NY Post Hunter Biden Story | Techdirt’
Ted Lasso and Easter hope
Over the past five years, my belief in a literal resurrection has gone down, but (perhaps unexpectedly) my love for Easter has gone up. For my congregation’s 2022 Easter service, I was invited to say contribute during a certain part of the service. I shared with the congregation that the resurrection is something that’s hard for me to wrap my head around, but I figure that if I can try to muster the belief in the impossibility of the resurrection, I can have the belief that we can overcome racism, fix poverty, and solve other seemingly impossible tasks facing us.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Bing has a testimony of the Book of Mormon! And other adventures with AI chatbots.'
This is one of the most amazing things I’ve read on generative AI. link to ‘Bing has a testimony of the Book of Mormon! And other adventures with AI chatbots.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Calls for action on gun violence meet silence from Kentucky's Republican legislative leaders - Kentucky Lantern'
Local shame in response to local tragedy. link to ‘Calls for action on gun violence meet silence from Kentucky’s Republican legislative leaders - Kentucky Lantern’
a second World Conference experience?
A week from tomorrow, I’m heading to Independence, Missouri to attend a few days of the 2023 World Conference of Community of Christ—and to act as a voting delegate in any of the legislative sessions that take place during my short time there. This is the first time since my confirmation into Community of Christ that a World Conference has taken place (the last one was in 2019), so I’ve been thinking about this for several months as “my first World Conference experience.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tweets, then deletes DMs from Matt Taibbi over his Substack snit - The Verge'
To paraphrase Mike Masnick, the defining motto of the Musk era seems to be ‘it can always get more stupid.’ link to ‘Elon Musk tweets, then deletes DMs from Matt Taibbi over his Substack snit - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Substack writers say Twitter’s newsletter ban is bad for business — and worse for Twitter - The Verge'
How does this acquisition continue to get dumber and dumber? link to ‘Substack writers say Twitter’s newsletter ban is bad for business — and worse for Twitter - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The dumb reason Twitter won’t allow retweeting tweets linking to Substack | Ars Technica'
The pettiness continues. link to ‘The dumb reason Twitter won’t allow retweeting tweets linking to Substack | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Tesla employees reportedly passed around personal videos from owners’ cars - The Verge'
I had never thought of a car as a creepy surveillance device, but this is horrifying. link to ‘Tesla employees reportedly passed around personal videos from owners’ cars - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Your Used Car May Soon Come With Subscription Fees | WIRED'
A dumb future that no one is asking for. link to ‘Your Used Car May Soon Come With Subscription Fees | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'NPR Was Twitter’s Example Of What Should NOT Be Labeled ‘State-Affiliated Media.’ Then Musk Added The Label And Retconned The Policy | Techdirt'
This is another dumb move by Musk. Masnick is excellent at calling him out on hypocrisy. link to ‘NPR Was Twitter’s Example Of What Should NOT Be Labeled ‘State-Affiliated Media.’ Then Musk Added The Label And Retconned The Policy | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Some political movements among us deserving of being opposed and rendered powerless'
In my journey with Community of Christ, I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking about what it means to pursue peace. I appreciate Pyle’s thoughts (and Star Trek references) here as he warns against allowing “peace and understanding” to neuter our opposition to evil. To be clear, that’s not what Community of Christ—or even maybe Nelson—is calling for, and I know my own opposition efforts risk denying the humanity and dignity of those I oppose.
on seeing the humanity in terrible people
I want to start this post by saying that it’s more about me working out some thoughts than telling anyone else how to think—or even saying what I think about the subject. I’ve written a number of times already that I’m reading through Desmond and Mpho Tutu’s The Book of Forgiving as part of a non-credit bearing class on peace and justice that I’m taking through Community of Christ Seminary. In the reading I completed for last night’s class session, I was impressed by the following passage from the elder Tutu:
thoughts on Mormon mission dreams
I’ve only read two Mormon missionary memoirs (plus one compilation of Mormon missionary comics), but both have been helpful for me in thinking about my own missionary experience. Brittany Long Olsen’s Dendo: One Year and One Half in Tokyo is a remarkable graphic novel memoir of her missionary service in Japan. The art is great, the ambition is fantastic, and it absolutely deserves the 2015 award it won from the Association of Mormon Letters.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Sen. Rand Paul becomes latest lawmaker opposing TikTok ban - The Verge'
Rand Paul is very often wrong, but I always appreciate when he comes through. link to ‘Sen. Rand Paul becomes latest lawmaker opposing TikTok ban - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT | WIRED'
I am not an AI expert, and my concerns aren’t on the existential scale. However, I do think it’s important to avoid moving fast and breaking things with these powerful technologies. That isn’t necessarily to say that more powerful AI shouldn’t be released (though I’m already disinterested by the current stuff), just that racing to improve them for commercial benefit and as technological flourish doesn’t strike me as socially responsible. link to ‘In Sudden Alarm, Tech Doyens Call for a Pause on ChatGPT | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Veto puts Kentucky in thick of fight over transgender rights | Lexington Herald Leader'
Even if the Kentucky GOP is right and this is what loses Beshear the election, it it was clearly the right thing to do. I want Beshear to stay in office, but I don’t know if I could vote for him if he didn’t resist the queerphobia coming out of the General Assembly. Shame on our legislature for passing this bill—and for so clearly acknowledging here that it’s to score political points at the expense of Kentucky children.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '“The library is a safe place.” – WIL WHEATON dot NET'
I’ve felt a lot of appreciation for Wil Wheaton recently, but for him to come to Kentucky to praise our libraries and speak against dumb laws passed by our legislature makes me just love the guy. link to ‘“The library is a safe place.” – WIL WHEATON dot NET’
reckoning and forgiveness
I write a lot about Mormonism on this blog, and even though I’m not shy about being critical, I think I’ve also made clear that in relative terms, I’m on pretty good terms with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not on such good terms that I’m still an active member of that church, of course, but I still feel a lot of fondness for it, and I don’t think I’ll ever consider myself an “ex-Mormon”—the great thing about the word “Mormon” no longer being officially approved is that it makes it all the more appropriate for describing my own religious identity.
how to understand 'Restoration'
One of the lectionary readings for tomorrow’s service is Ezekiel 37:1-14, which I read in Robert Alter’s beautiful translation. In this passage, Ezekiel famously prophesies:
“O dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD, Thus said the Master, the LORD, to the dry bones: I am about to bring breath into you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews over you and bring up flesh over you and stretch over you skin.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky governor vetoes sweeping GOP transgender measure | Lexington Herald Leader'
Good for Andy. One thing I personally appreciate about Governor Beshear is that he so often invokes his faith as a Democrat. Granted, it’s probably a calculated decision in such a red state, and I’m still uncomfortable with how faith and politics are intertwined in the U.S., but it shows that faith doesn’t have to be queerphobic. link to ‘Kentucky governor vetoes sweeping GOP transgender measure | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Biblical Literalists Don’t Exist - YouTube'
Great point made by someone whose voice I’ve grown to appreciate over the past several months. link to ‘Biblical Literalists Don’t Exist - YouTube’
on reading scripture with an agenda
I grew up in a faith tradition that put a huge amount of emphasis on the King James Version of the Bible. It was only four years ago (in the early phases of my faith transition), that I deliberately picked up another translation to read instead. Even then, I picked a relatively “safe” transition to venture into: Thomas Wayment’s The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints. Since it was co-published by Deseret Book and BYU, it had some tacit approval from Latter-day Saint institutions, even if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints itself still identifies the KJV as its official English language text.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for La réinvention du nom de Dieu [Reinventing God's Name], by Gérard Siegwalt
A few months ago, I began listening to the Radio Télévision Suisse show Babel again; I have an off and on relationship with the show and decided it was time for another on. I was impressed with an interview Siegwalt gave discussing this book and put it on my list. It turned out I could buy it from the Swiss publisher, which offered a flat 5€ shipping fee, even to have it sent here to Kentucky.
📺 tvblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for The Good Place (Season 1)
My spouse and I watched all four seasons of this show more or less as they came out. The past few months have seen some pretty big changes to our family schedule, and we haven’t has as much time to watch TV together, so we recently decided to rewatch The Good Place (since episodes are short). It’s a very rewatchable show; you can get a lot out of it once you know what’s yet to come.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk apologizes for mocking and firing Twitter exec with muscular dystrophy | Ars Technica'
Twitter just gets worse and worse. What a joke. link to ‘Musk apologizes for mocking and firing Twitter exec with muscular dystrophy | Ars Technica’
on the SEC and conflating a church with God
On January 24, 2023, Elder Kevin S. Hamilton of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gave a speech at BYU where he made the following comments:
As I visit with members across the Church, I sometimes hear things like “I don’t support the Church’s policy on (you fill in the blank).” Or “I don’t agree with the way the Church does (this or that).”
Could I suggest an alternative approach?
a nearly-forgotten memory of failing to stand up to Islamophobia
[Mit einem Glasdach überdachter Vorplatz des Staßburger Bahnhofs, by Dr.-Ing. S.Wetzel, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0]
I don’t remember exactly where we were, but I’m pretty sure it was near the Strasbourg train station. Maybe we were in the station, or maybe we were somewhere nearby. We must have come to Strasbourg from Colmar, where we spent most of our time. It was a shop of some kind: Were we buying breakfast?
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Is Reportedly Building 'Based AI' Because ChatGPT Is Too Woke'
This is dumb and worrying. The CEO of Gab has been promising to develop “based AI,” but he’s a bit player. Musk has the resources and influence to make this a bigger problem. link to ‘Elon Musk Is Reportedly Building ‘Based AI’ Because ChatGPT Is Too Woke’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'OpenAI Is Now Everything It Promised Not to Be: Corporate, Closed-Source, and For-Profit'
I don’t know enough about OpenAI to evaluate these concerns, but I think these questions are important. The power of AI means that the companies that control them are also in a position of power, and it’s important that we treat them critically. That said, while I do think making LLM code open source is probably better in the aggregate, it isn’t without concerning drawbacks: The minute it was released under an open license, I’m sure Gab’s Andrew Torba would be considering how to make a homebrew version that can’t be content moderated.
a surprising (but ultimately damning) non-apology
Earlier today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement announcing that:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its affiliated investment manager, Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc., have settled a matter with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Unsuprisingly, the Salt Lake Tribune describes the context surrounding the settlement in more detail:
In a settlement announced Tuesday with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Utah-based faith and its investment arm, Ensign Peak Advisors, have agreed to pay $5 million in penalties for failing to properly disclose past stock holdings and going to “great lengths” to deliberately “obscure” the church’s investment portfolio.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'As conservatives criticize ‘woke AI,’ here are ChatGPT’s rules for answering culture war queries - The Verge'
Content moderation is hard, and moderating AI content definitely seems harder to me. However, so long as OpenAI has control over ChatGPT (and benefits from others’ use of it), I do think it has a responsibility to shape what it can produce. That said, there remains a deeper, legitimate question about how much influence a single company should have over LLM output. link to ‘As conservatives criticize ‘woke AI,’ here are ChatGPT’s rules for answering culture war queries - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first - The Verge'
This is just so petty. I don’t know how his leadership at Twitter is defensible anymore. link to ‘Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first - The Verge’
prophetic clarity and prophetic uncertainty
A few weeks ago, while walking through Julietta Market at Lexington’s Greyline Station, I stopped for a few minutes at a used bookstore at one of the stalls and walked away with a copy of Thomas Merton: Passion for Peace. I haven’t gotten far into it yet—later that week, a book by a French theologian that I’d ordered arrived in the mail, and that’s taken up most of my reading attention since.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Voice Actors Push Back Against Their Voices Being Used by AI'
Interesting and important read. link to ‘Voice Actors Push Back Against Their Voices Being Used by AI’
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Everything Everywhere All At Once
I put off watching this movie for a while, despite a number of recommendations. I think it’s fitting that I finally watched it so soon after listening to the audiobook of Walkaway, a very weird Cory Doctorow novel about finding hope despite things going very badly. This movie is far, far weirder than Walkaway, and yet it also does a much, much better job of getting that same message across. I feel like it spoke to many of my current anxieties, but in a healing and helpful way.
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
To my own surprise, I’ve been getting into audiobooks recently, and having listened to Doctorow’s “Walkaway,” I decided to revisit his Little Brother series in audio form. Parts of the first book haven’t aged well (including some language that was bad enough to be edited out of the print version I have), and while I enjoy Doctorow’s opinions, they sometimes overwhelm the story here. That said, to quote TVTropes, some anvils are worth dropping, and the messages about privacy, surveillance, and civil liberties are as relevant as ever, I don’t know if I enjoyed the book as much as I did my first time through, but I still like it enough to give it four hearts.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Everything is hackable. That’s not always a bad thing.'
Interesting reflection here. link to ‘Everything is hackable. That’s not always a bad thing.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s reach on Twitter is dropping — he just fired a top engineer over it - The Verge'
Every time I think this acquisition can’t get dumber, it does. link to ‘Elon Musk’s reach on Twitter is dropping — he just fired a top engineer over it - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare, and we ought to be concerned | Ars Technica'
Important points in here. link to ‘ChatGPT is a data privacy nightmare, and we ought to be concerned | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots - The New York Times'
Important to keep an eye on this. link to ‘Disinformation Researchers Raise Alarms About A.I. Chatbots - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Conservatives Are Obsessed With Getting ChatGPT to Say the N-Word'
Of all the dumb responses to perfectly legitimate content moderation, this is perhaps the dumbest. link to ‘Conservatives Are Obsessed With Getting ChatGPT to Say the N-Word’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '4chan users embrace AI voice clone tool to generate celebrity hatespeech - The Verge'
Why… why don’t we better anticipate better misuses like this? Are technological “progress” and market opportunities more important than these side effects? link to ‘4chan users embrace AI voice clone tool to generate celebrity hatespeech - The Verge’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Walkaway, by Cory Doctorow
I bounced pretty hard off of Walkaway a year or so ago, but I recently decided to give it another try. I felt like I needed a boost of hopeful thinking, and I’d seen Doctorow post about the book as being hopeful. Did it ever deliver! Walkaway is hopeful on a nearly religious level, and it was exactly what I needed. The book is not naïvely optimistic but rather tenacious in its belief that we can still make this a better workd.
Doctrine & Covenants feat. Doctorow: An unexpected paired text
As I’ve written elsewhere, I am currently giving Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway another try after bouncing off of it a while ago. Because I bounced off of it so hard the last time, I’m surprised by how much it’s resonating off of me as I give it another go. This past week, I’ve been listening to a lot of Walkaway on top of doing a lot of religious reading: assignments for the Ministry of the Disciple class I’m taking through the Community of Christ Seminary’s Center for Innovation in Ministry and Missino, Gérard Siegwalt’s Reinventing God’s name [La réinvention du nom de Dieu], and various scriptures for today’s liturgical readings.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'In The End, Trump Will Screw Over Anyone: Including His ‘Own’ Social Media Company | Techdirt'
Welp, all the more reason to leave birdsite behind. link to ‘In The End, Trump Will Screw Over Anyone: Including His ‘Own’ Social Media Company | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Madison Square Garden's facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech : NPR'
Glad this story is still getting attention, because it so neatly demonstrates why facial recognition is scary. We shouldn’t tolerate this level of surveillance—by private or public actors. link to ‘Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition policy ignites debate over the tech : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour: Exclusive | Time'
Looks like the job of AI training is as awful as the job of content moderation. link to ‘OpenAI Used Kenyan Workers on Less Than $2 Per Hour: Exclusive | Time’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter says it’s intentionally blocking apps like Tweetbot - The Verge'
Ah, the kind of answer that only raises more questions. link to ‘Twitter says it’s intentionally blocking apps like Tweetbot - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'CNET Defends Use of AI Blogger After Embarrassing 163-Word Correction: ‘Humans Make Mistakes, Too’'
Here, as with autocorrect and citation managers, my personal opinion is that any human who knows enough to use the tool critically knows enough to do the job themself. Maybe slower, sure, but slower isn’t always bad. link to ‘CNET Defends Use of AI Blogger After Embarrassing 163-Word Correction: ‘Humans Make Mistakes, Too’’
'licensed, not sold, to you'
As I’ve blogged about a couple of times recently, I’m currently reading R. Sikoryak’s Terms and Conditions, a graphic novel adaptation of the 2015 iTunes Terms and Conditions document, which no one ever reads.
I was struck (if not surprised) by something stated explicitly in the document, which appears on p. 59 of Sikoryak’s volume:
The software products made available through the Mac App Store and App Store (collectively, the “App Store Products”) are licensed, not sold, to you.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How ‘radioactive data’ could help reveal malicious AIs - The Verge'
Fascinating read on potential threats posed by AI—and potential solutions. link to ‘How ‘radioactive data’ could help reveal malicious AIs - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Indigenous tech group asks Apache Foundation to change its name | Ars Technica'
Ashamed to admit that until this week, I ’d never really thought about the origins of this name. This seems like a pretty straightforward argument, though, and I can’t think of any compelling reason not to change the name. link to ‘Indigenous tech group asks Apache Foundation to change its name | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Public Library Budgets Are Being Slashed. Police Have More Cash Than Ever'
Libraries are perhaps the most important public institution out there. We can’t afford to cut their budgets. link to ‘Public Library Budgets Are Being Slashed. Police Have More Cash Than Ever’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Mouse Jigglers, Fake PowerPoints: Workers Foil Bosses’ Surveillance Attempts - WSJ'
Hey, look, workplace surveillance doesn’t work. link to ‘Mouse Jigglers, Fake PowerPoints: Workers Foil Bosses’ Surveillance Attempts - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Iran to use facial recognition to identify women without hijabs | Ars Technica'
I’m skeptical of many technologies, most of which I can concede have some real value. In contrast, I have a lot of trouble seeing any value in facial recognition that outweighs the obvious, large-scale harms that can come from it.
link to ‘Iran to use facial recognition to identify women without hijabs | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'As Elon Fires More Trust & Safety Staff, Twitter’s Moderation Efforts Fall Apart | Techdirt'
Repeat after me: Content moderation is a good thing. link to ‘As Elon Fires More Trust & Safety Staff, Twitter’s Moderation Efforts Fall Apart | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Chokepoint Capitalism can break you free from big tech and big content - The Verge'
It’s a long interview, so I didn’t read the whole thing, but what I did read made me want to read this book even more. I have a copy, I just need to open it up. link to ‘Chokepoint Capitalism can break you free from big tech and big content - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Researchers Could Track the GPS Location of All of California’s New Digital License Plates'
A good reminder that analog is often better. Digital often benefits others (including bad actors) more than ourselves. link to ‘Researchers Could Track the GPS Location of All of California’s New Digital License Plates’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Heike's Void, by Steven Peck
What a weird, profound, and beautiful book. This is a very Mormon novel, and in all the best ways. It takes Mormonism seriously—even literally—but not uncritically. I’d wager that Peck has read Grant Hardy, and my favorite bit in an amazing book is a throwaway joke about farewell expressions in French in a way that only someone who knows and loves the Book of Mormon would do. More than all of that, it is a profound and optimistic (but never naïve) story about redemption knowing no bounds.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware | Ars Technica'
I’ve been making a real effort to be less pessimistic about ChatGPT, and I imagine this makes a better headline than actual threat, but this is still the sort of thing that makes me wonder about AI. What is missing from our world that ChatGPT fills? And is it worth these increased risks?
link to ‘ChatGPT is enabling script kiddies to write functional malware | Ars Technica’
on Epiphany and insurrection
I grew up in a faith tradition that—with the exception of major holidays like Christmas and Easter—didn’t follow the Christian liturgical calendar. So, shortly after I began attending Community of Christ regularly (and, given the circumstances, virtually) in 2020, I decided I was going to learn more all of the seasons and holidays that I wasn’t familiar with. A few months earlier, I’d heard an interview with the Swiss abbot Urban Federer on the Babel podcast by Radio Télévision Suisse.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'January 6 Report: 11 Details You May Have Missed | WIRED'
Two years later, and we’re still learning just how bad this event was. Only two years later, and large parts of the country are ready to sweep it all under the rug.
link to ‘January 6 Report: 11 Details You May Have Missed | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '531 | Cuppa Joe | Historic Sites Foundation | Divergent Paths of the Community of Christ: The Past One Hundred Years – Project Zion Podcast'
Steve Shields does good work and has an interesting perspective on things. It’s fun to hear from him.
link to ‘531 | Cuppa Joe | Historic Sites Foundation | Divergent Paths of the Community of Christ: The Past One Hundred Years – Project Zion Podcast’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for A Short Stay in Hell, by Steven Peck
I’ve read this short novella at least four times already, but I received a physical copy for Christmas and couldn’t help but give it another read. Despite being existentially horrifying, it’s one of my favorite books of all time. The protagonist is a Mormon man who dies and wakes up to his surprise in hell. This hell is specifically promised to be finite, but it’s a vast kind of finite: It’s a Borges-inspired library that consists of every possible book (as if written by monkeys on typewriters), and once you find the book that tells your life story, you get out of hell.
Disciples' Generous Response for 1 January 2023
A member of my Community of Christ congregation recently asked if I would lead the Disciples’ Generous Response portion of tomorrow’s worship service (where donations and tithes are collected). I’ve done this for previous services, but more than any other way I’ve contributed to a Community of Christ service, this is the one that takes the most practice. In Latter-day Saint services, there’s never this kind of collection, and this was honestly one of the hardest things to get used to as I began regularly attending Community of Christ services.
on faith transition and letting go of LDS modesty worship
I’ve mentioned before that I support the Salt Lake Tribune’s Mormon Land podcast on Patreon, one of the perks of which is that I get access to the Tribune’s Mormon coverage without having to subscribe to the whole paper (which would be a lot of money for someone who doesn’t care about Jazz coverage or Utah politics).
Thanks to this Patreon perk, I read a lot of news about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and between that and over three decades that I spent as an active member of that church, you’d think that nothing would surprise me anymore.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk asks in poll if he should step down as Twitter CEO, users vote yes : NPR'
What a weird week it has been in Twitterland.
link to ‘Musk asks in poll if he should step down as Twitter CEO, users vote yes : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors - The Verge'
Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse. Will be really interested to see if Dorsey gets banned.
link to ‘Twitter abruptly bans all links to Instagram, Mastodon, and other competitors - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Tries (Badly) To Defend The Banning Of Journalists As Twitter Starts Blocking Links & Mentions Of Mastodon | Techdirt'
I’ve posted a bunch of articles about this already, but Masnick’s take is super helpful.
link to ‘Elon Tries (Badly) To Defend The Banning Of Journalists As Twitter Starts Blocking Links & Mentions Of Mastodon | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.'
Free speech is genuinely important, but it’s hard to take the ideal seriously when its advocates twist it to mean something specific and self-serving.
link to ‘Elon Musk Is Taking Aim at Journalists. I’m One of Them.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon - The Verge'
I’ve been trying to avoid dire predictions for Twitter since Musk took over, but this seems more and more like a turning point in the identity and reputation of the platform.
link to ‘Twitter is blocking links to Mastodon - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter - The Verge'
I mean, I’m willing to wait a bit and see what Twitter and Musk have to say about this, but this sure doesn’t seem like the approach that a free speech absolutist would take.
link to ‘Elon Musk starts banning critical journalists from Twitter - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon’s Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account | Techdirt'
Musk is getting pettier and more self-centered.
link to ‘Elon’s Commitment To Free Speech Rapidly Replaced By His Commitment To Blatant Hypocrisy: Bans The JoinMastodon Account | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Experts Warn ChatGPT Could Democratize Cybercrime - Infosecurity Magazine'
Well, this is terrifying.
link to ‘Experts Warn ChatGPT Could Democratize Cybercrime - Infosecurity Magazine’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account | Techdirt'
How does such an already bad story get so much worse over the course of a single day?
link to ‘Elon’s Promise Not To Ban Account Tracking His Jet Didn’t Last Very Long At All; Also Bans Guy’s Personal Account | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Bans Elon Musk Flight Tracking Account After He Said It Wouldn’t, for Free Speech'
Twitter left up other flight tracking accounts but took down Musk’s?
link to ‘Twitter Bans Elon Musk Flight Tracking Account After He Said It Wouldn’t, for Free Speech’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter suspends @ElonJet after Musk promises not to ban it - The Verge'
This is petty and concerning.
link to ‘Twitter suspends @ElonJet after Musk promises not to ban it - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter ditches Trust and Safety Council as Musk tweets fuel harassment | Ars Technica'
I think this headline captures one of the worst parts of all of this: Musk isn’t just dismissing concerns about behavior, he’s fueling that behavior.
link to ‘Twitter ditches Trust and Safety Council as Musk tweets fuel harassment | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Goodbye, Twitter - by Ken White - The Popehat Report'
I haven’t been following Ken White as much as I used to, but this reminds me why I appreciate his perspective. This is someone who knows what free speech is and advocates for it, not someone who uses it as a buzzword justification for reprehensible behavior, à la Musk.
link to ‘Goodbye, Twitter - by Ken White - The Popehat Report’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'TSA Quietly Deploying Facial Recognition Scanners At Major US Airports | Techdirt'
Oh please no.
link to ‘TSA Quietly Deploying Facial Recognition Scanners At Major US Airports | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Before Musk Riled Everyone Up With Misleading Twitter Files About ‘Shadowbanning,’ Musk Used The Tool To Hide Account Tracking His Plane | Techdirt'
If I could pick one story to demonstrate that Musk’s Twitter tenure has been blundering and inconsistent…
link to ‘Before Musk Riled Everyone Up With Misleading Twitter Files About ‘Shadowbanning,’ Musk Used The Tool To Hide Account Tracking His Plane | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files | WIRED'
I have deliberately not been following the Twitter Files stuff, but I did read this and found it helpful.
link to ‘The Transparency Theater of the Twitter Files | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Thanks to AI, it’s probably time to take your photos off the Internet | Ars Technica'
Good thing engineers really anticipated and considered these consequences before developing this software, right?
link to ‘Thanks to AI, it’s probably time to take your photos off the Internet | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'ChatGPT, Galactica, and the Progress Trap | WIRED'
A helpful and thoughtful critique of how people are doing AI text generation.
link to ‘ChatGPT, Galactica, and the Progress Trap | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s Not Just You: Businesses Are Making Their Phone Numbers Hard to Find - WSJ'
What a crappy future we are heading toward.
link to ‘It’s Not Just You: Businesses Are Making Their Phone Numbers Hard to Find - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Mormons in Mexico and the Search for Truth, Pipe Wrench no. 8:'
Long read but a good read.
link to ‘Mormons in Mexico and the Search for Truth, Pipe Wrench no. 8:’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Brave Sir Bentham, Utilitarian Knight - Existential Comics'
Only thing better than a critique of utilitarianism is a critique of utilitarianism in the form of a comic.
link to ‘Brave Sir Bentham, Utilitarian Knight - Existential Comics’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The 4th Nephi Dystopia – Wheat & Tares'
I have to admit I was skeptical of the title, but this is a very interesting reading, and I’ll never read 4th Nephi the same again.
link to ‘The 4th Nephi Dystopia – Wheat & Tares’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington, Ky Mayor wants to expand license plate cameras | Lexington Herald Leader'
I have written council representatives about this more than anything else, and yet I suspect that it will go through again without a fuss. This isn’t the worst form of surveillance, but it is still surveillance, pure and simple.
link to ‘Lexington, Ky Mayor wants to expand license plate cameras | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'BYU-I instructors fired for failing ‘ecclesiastical clearance.’ They can’t find out why.'
This is such a frustrating story. I never wanted to work at a BYU, but as a Mormon earning a PhD, I often told myself I couldn’t afford to rule it out. This adds to the pile of reasons that I’m glad there weren’t jobs open for me to apply to.
link to ‘BYU-I instructors fired for failing ‘ecclesiastical clearance.’ They can’t find out why.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'They Wanted a Baby, Then Twitter Fired Them | WIRED'
Infertility sucks, and stories like this make me even more upset about Musk’s callous and chaotic Twitter takeover.
link to ‘They Wanted a Baby, Then Twitter Fired Them | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Admits His Content Moderation Council Was Always A Sham To Keep Advertisers On The Site | Techdirt'
I’m glad I began reading Techdirt before this whole mess started… Masnick’s persective has been a helpful guide.
link to ‘Elon Admits His Content Moderation Council Was Always A Sham To Keep Advertisers On The Site | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone Twitter banned back on the site - The Verge'
Is he serious? Does he really think this is a good idea? Also, I love the increasing sass that The Verge and other outlets are putting into their comments about Twitter no longer having a communications team to respond to requests for comment.
link to ‘Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone Twitter banned back on the site - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tries to blame ‘activists’ for his Twitter moderation council lie - The Verge'
This seems petty, immature, and misguided.
link to ‘Elon Musk tries to blame ‘activists’ for his Twitter moderation council lie - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''Most Dangerous Person In the World' Is a Teacher Union Leader, Former CIA Director Says'
What a load of garbage.
link to ‘‘Most Dangerous Person In the World’ Is a Teacher Union Leader, Former CIA Director Says’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave - The New York Times'
I didn’t expect 1,200 resignations!
link to ‘Elon Musk’s Twitter Teeters on the Edge After Another 1,200 Leave - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and the Babylon Bee - The Verge'
Oh good, so on top of the unexpected chaos, the expected chaos is also still happening.
link to ‘Elon Musk begins reinstating banned Twitter accounts, starting with Jordan Peterson and the Babylon Bee - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Far-Right Is Convinced Kari Lake Won: ‘Now Is the Time to Fight’'
The midterms could have been a lot worse, but this is a reminder that there’s still real danger lurking out there.
link to ‘The Far-Right Is Convinced Kari Lake Won: ‘Now Is the Time to Fight’’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Q is Dead, Long Live QAnon'
Helpful summary of the current state of QAnon.
link to ‘Q is Dead, Long Live QAnon’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk ignored Twitter’s internal warnings about paid verification - The Verge'
This doesn’t surprise me at all. So much of the current Twitter chaos is predictable.
link to ‘Elon Musk ignored Twitter’s internal warnings about paid verification - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter reactivated the new ‘Official’ gray checkmark for accounts that are actually verified - The Verge'
What an absolute mess this whole thing has been.
link to ‘Twitter reactivated the new ‘Official’ gray checkmark for accounts that are actually verified - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk-led Twitter rolls out new “Official” tags, removes them hours later | Ars Technica'
Move fast and break things, indeed. Checks as verification and checks as business model are inherently at odds with each other, and I get the vibe that Musk (team business model) is unhappy with internal pushback from team verification.
link to ‘Musk-led Twitter rolls out new “Official” tags, removes them hours later | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meet the ‘Black Robe Regiment’ of Extremist Pastors Spreading Christian Nationalism'
This reminds me of all the pastors doing guest posts on the official Gab blog. Also, of course Glenn Beck was involved in this somehow.
link to ‘Meet the ‘Black Robe Regiment’ of Extremist Pastors Spreading Christian Nationalism’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge'
They’re so obvious as to almost not be worth pointing out, but two points: First, this is why making verification a paid feature is dumb; and second, penalizing parody because your business model is dumb is not what free speech absolutism looks like.
link to ‘Elon Musk’s first Twitter moderation change calls for permanent bans on impersonators - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge'
Choosing not to do business with someone isn’t an assault on free speech—it’s the very definition of the marketplace of ideas.
link to ‘Elon Musk tries to distract from Twitter layoffs by claiming advertisers are fleeing the platform - The Verge’
further thoughts on Jephthah's daughter
Yesterday, I wrote a post on Jephthah, a figure in the book of Judges who makes a commitment that if God helps him out in battle, he’ll sacrifice the first thing that exits the door of his house when he returns home. Robert Alter notes that there’s been a lot of rabbinic and scholarly effort to make sense of this but that in “any case, it is a rash vow.” Indeed, the vow goes wrong, and Jephthah winds up in a situation where’s he believes he’s committed to offer up his daughter in sacrifice.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Drivers Are Still Peeing in Bottles'
Someone’s paying the price for the convenience of shopping on Amazon.
link to ‘Amazon Drivers Are Still Peeing in Bottles’
on Jephthah, Jeremiah, and David Archuleta
Some of the most troubling passages in the Christian canon have to do with the sacrifice of children in the name of God. Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac is perhaps the most obvious example of this, but there are other examples that (ought to) raise as much concern in the mind of the believer. Perhaps the most interesting (to me) story along these lines is found in Judges 11:31 (I’m using Robert Alter’s fantastic translation throughout this post), where one of the eponymous judges, a man by the name of Jephthah:
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'With Falsehoods About Pelosi Attack, Republicans Mimic Trump - The New York Times'
Republicans’ reaction to this just makes the story more and more tragic. We have a real problem on our hands, and while I don’t believe all Republicans are this far gone, I’d like to see more from them condemning this behavior instead of trying to keep the party together and ahead.
link to ‘With Falsehoods About Pelosi Attack, Republicans Mimic Trump - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Republicans Continue to Spread Baseless Claims About Pelosi Attack - The New York Times'
Just sickening.
link to ‘Republicans Continue to Spread Baseless Claims About Pelosi Attack - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Nancy Pelosi, Vilified by G.O.P. for Years, Is a Top Target of Threats - The New York Times'
McDaniel can say what she wants—and its true that not all criticism of Pelosi is violent in nature—but in my mind, there’s no denying that two decades of GOP demonization has had a role to play in this terrible attack.
link to ‘Nancy Pelosi, Vilified by G.O.P. for Years, Is a Top Target of Threats - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. - The New York Times'
Content moderation is a good thing, and not all viewpoints deserve a seat at a table.
link to ‘Antisemitic campaign tries to capitalize on Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt'
Interesting read here from Masnick. I’m not familiar with everything he writes about here, but I always appreciate his perspective.
link to ‘Elon Musk’s First Move Is To Fire The Person Most Responsible For Twitter’s Strong Free Speech Stance | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Talking about the church president over the pulpit | LDS Data Analysis'
Some neat data analysis here—both in terms of methods and in findings. Hat tip to Jana Riess for bringing my attention to this in today’s column.
link to ‘Talking about the church president over the pulpit | LDS Data Analysis’
a conservative case for a modern language edition of the Book of Mormon
I’ve written a fair amount already on my rereading the Book of Mormon project, where I’m entertaining the idea of what a modern language edition of the book (or at least the Book of Mosiah) might look like. In my work thus far, I’ve been proceeding under the assumption that this is an inherently liberal project: In both the LDS and RLDS traditions, there has been considerable resistance to large-scale changes to the English language text of the Book of Mormon, largely because the English text is held to be translated through divine power and therefore unassailable.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Right Wingers ‘Fight’ AT&T By Embracing ‘Anti-Woke’ Cell Carrier…That’s Just Rebranded AT&T | Techdirt'
Don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
link to ‘Right Wingers ‘Fight’ AT&T By Embracing ‘Anti-Woke’ Cell Carrier…That’s Just Rebranded AT&T | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Report: Internet providers offer Louisville residents unequal speeds for similar prices – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
I’d skipped over the story when the Markup reported it, but seeing local coverage of how it plays out locally makes it even worse. Municipal broadband ought to be more common!
link to ‘Report: Internet providers offer Louisville residents unequal speeds for similar prices – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'On Choosing Each Other and Eating the Fruit | By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog'
Fantastic post here. One of the first calm moments for me in a very messy faith transition was leaving the Louisville Temple and thinking about how central Adam and Eve’s “disobedience” is in Latter-day Saint theology.
link to ‘On Choosing Each Other and Eating the Fruit | By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas Sues Google Over Use of Facial Images - WSJ'
I don’t like Paxton, and I can’t imagine this is much more than performative railing against a strawman version of Big Tech, but this is a real issue, so I’m interested to see where it goes.
link to ‘Texas Sues Google Over Use of Facial Images - WSJ’
gratitude for models of being imperfect but 'good enough'
Yesterday, I listened to a new episode of the Project: Zion podcast, the semi-official podcast of Community of Christ. This episode was an interview with Shandra Newcom, one of two apostles-designate who will begin their service after the April 2023 World Conference of the church. It was a delightful episode, and I posted something to the Community of Christ subreddit that I wanted to repeat here:
What a great episode!
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ye’s ‘Buyout’ Of Parler Looks Very Much Like A Failed Company Taking Advantage Of Troubled Rich Guy | Techdirt'
Insightful speculation by Masnick. Ye’s said some horrible things recently, but that doesn’t mean Parlement can’t be taking advantage of him.
link to ‘Ye’s ‘Buyout’ Of Parler Looks Very Much Like A Failed Company Taking Advantage Of Troubled Rich Guy | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Is Already Boosting Election Conspiracies Ahead of the Midterms'
I’ve been worrying about 2024, but 2022 is going to be bad enough. GOP needs to do something about this.
link to ‘Trump Is Already Boosting Election Conspiracies Ahead of the Midterms’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky’s county clerks deal with misinformation as election approaches – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
We’ve had it better than some states, so it’s disappointing to hear all of this.
link to ‘Kentucky’s county clerks deal with misinformation as election approaches – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kanye West is buying ‘free speech platform’ Parler - The Verge'
Oh no. This can’t be good.
link to ‘Kanye West is buying ‘free speech platform’ Parler - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Meta’s VR Headset Harvests Personal Data Right Off Your Face | WIRED'
I had not thought this much about the privacy implications of VR, and ooooof.
link to ‘Meta’s VR Headset Harvests Personal Data Right Off Your Face | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Watch the Disturbing Kanye Interview Clips That Tucker Carlson Didn’t Put on Air'
Wild story, and heck of a scoop. Says far more about Tucker Carlson than about Ye.
link to ‘Watch the Disturbing Kanye Interview Clips That Tucker Carlson Didn’t Put on Air’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Arizona GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Insists ‘Deep State’ Google Is Blocking His Website; Turns Out He Requested It Not Be Indexed | Techdirt'
Politicians need to better understand the internet. This is just as dumb (and perhaps more devious) than the nonsense the governor of Missouri was up to.
link to ‘Arizona GOP Secretary Of State Candidate Insists ‘Deep State’ Google Is Blocking His Website; Turns Out He Requested It Not Be Indexed | Techdirt’
thoughts on recent Mormon Land podcast
The Salt Lake Tribune’s Mormon Land podcast is one of my favorites—I’ve gone so far as to support it on Patreon so that I can get all the Tribune’s religion coverage without having to subscribe to the entire newspaper. Mormon news interests me a lot, but Utah news doesn’t interest me at all. Yesterday’s episode on age and Latter-day Saint leadership was one of the most interesting episodes that I’ve listened to.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Who is ready for a fleet of cubesats flying over cities, displaying ads? | Ars Technica'
This is a terrible idea, and it is wildly irresponsible to do research like this.
link to ‘Who is ready for a fleet of cubesats flying over cities, displaying ads? | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Talk of ‘Civil War,’ Ignited by Mar-a-Lago Search, Is Flaring Online - The New York Times'
I am growing more and more nervous about our future.
link to ‘Talk of ‘Civil War,’ Ignited by Mar-a-Lago Search, Is Flaring Online - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Onion Files Hilarious Amicus Brief In An Important Case, And Actually Makes A Key Point In The Best Way Possible | Techdirt'
Amazing stuff here.
link to ‘The Onion Files Hilarious Amicus Brief In An Important Case, And Actually Makes A Key Point In The Best Way Possible | Techdirt’
on distinctions between 'church' and gospel'
During the last few years I spent as a practicing Latter-day Saint, one recurring pet peeve that I had was the overbroad use of the term “gospel” to refer to all Latter-day Saint doctrines, teachings, and beliefs. In hindsight, learning to separate the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ from everything that I believed was a major part of my faith transition—and my ability to continue in Christianity even when the version that I was used to started to no longer work for me.
the problem with Gadianton robber rhetoric
After recently finishing an excellent biography on Brigham Young, I’m starting to make my way through some other Mormon Studies books that I own but have not yet read. This has brought me to Paul Reeve’s Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. It’s very good so far, and I regret having waited until now to read it. I’m currently working through Reeve’s chapters describing Mormons’ relationship with American Indians, and I just now read a paragraph that really surprised me.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'In Washington, Putin’s Nuclear Threats Stir Growing Alarm - The New York Times'
Russia is currently demonstrating just how powerful and dangerous nuclear weapons are—and, unfortunately, how complicated disarmament is.
link to ‘In Washington, Putin’s Nuclear Threats Stir Growing Alarm - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Rand Paul declines to debate Charles Booker on KET – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Unsurprising but disappointing.
link to ‘Rand Paul declines to debate Charles Booker on KET – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites Won’t Fix Iran Internet Censorship'
Good read on the emptiness of recent Musk bluster.
link to ‘Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellites Won’t Fix Iran Internet Censorship’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gab Founder Andrew Torba Wants to Build a Christian Nationalist Internet'
Good reporting on a scary but important subject. I’ve been collecting Gab blog posts to eventually study some of this Christian nationalism.
link to ‘Gab Founder Andrew Torba Wants to Build a Christian Nationalist Internet’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How ‘Lord of the Rings’ Inspires Italy’s Giorgia Meloni - The New York Times'
Very interesting article on how Tolkien can inspire far right thinking.
[link to ‘How ‘Lord of the Rings’ Inspires Italy’s Giorgia Meloni - The New York Times’](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/world/europe/giorgia-meloni-lord-of-the-rings.html?action=click
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/26/subreddit-discriminates-against-anyone-who-doesnt-call-texas-gov'
This is juvenile enough that I feel guilty finding it funny, but it’s a good demonstration of the problems with this backlash against content moderation.
link to ‘https://www.techdirt.com/2022/09/26/subreddit-discriminates-against-anyone-who-doesnt-call-texas-gov’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'AI Is Probably Using Your Images and It's Not Easy to Opt Out'
Ooof. AI-generated art is fun, but it comes at a price, and we can’t afford to forget it.
link to ‘AI Is Probably Using Your Images and It’s Not Easy to Opt Out’
being present and « Les Cowboys Fringants »
A couple of weeks ago, I was invited to preprare a “focus moment” for today’s worship service in my Community of Christ congregation. There are some things I might change for a different audience (putting more nuance into my current view of God, for example), but I’m still pretty happy with what I came up with. I’m particularly happy about the translation of the song—I didn’t bring it up when sharing, but this is a French Canadian song that I translated for today’s purpose.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Transgender religious leaders use the Bible to make churches more inclusive : NPR'
Lots to love in this article, but I especially appreciate the point that God and Creation resist binaries.
link to ‘Transgender religious leaders use the Bible to make churches more inclusive : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Most Famous Blunder Of Content Moderation: Do NOT Quote The Princess Bride | Techdirt'
Great movie, great example of the difficulty of content moderation.
link to ‘The Most Famous Blunder Of Content Moderation: Do NOT Quote The Princess Bride | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps | WIRED'
I had heard about this kind of software at a conference last year, but reading about it just makes it scarier.
link to ‘The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Asian American council candidate fights Communist rumors | Lexington Herald Leader'
What a dumb allegation. Just makes me want to vote for Wu even more.
link to ‘Asian American council candidate fights Communist rumors | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Too much trust in machine translation could have deadly consequences.'
This article provides good examples of how the efficacy and efficiency of a given technology is often less important than deeper questions of reliance and roles.
link to ‘Too much trust in machine translation could have deadly consequences.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything'
I missed the vertical integration aspect of this in earlier reporting I’ve read. It makes this story even worse.
link to ‘‘Ring Nation’ Is a Terrible Idea That’s Unstoppable Because Amazon Owns Everything’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas has teed up a Supreme Court fight for the future of the internet - The Verge'
We need to do more work to divorce free speech from content moderation. The world without content moderation would be a much worse world, and we don’t want to live in it. Sure, social media platforms are too powerful, but this is not the answer.
link to ‘Texas has teed up a Supreme Court fight for the future of the internet - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Dozens of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon and MGM to cancel Ring Nation reality show - The Verge'
This is a gross idea for a TV show, and I’m glad people are pushing back against it.
link to ‘Dozens of civil rights groups are calling on Amazon and MGM to cancel Ring Nation reality show - The Verge’
standing the wrong way in the elevator: a response to Oaks and Gilbert
I ride an e-bike into work, and because an e-bike is expensive, I bring it into my office rather than lock it up at one of the bike racks on University of Kentucky campus. Because an e-bike is heavy, I also take it up the elevator to get up to the third floor, where my office is. My e-bike takes up a lot of space, but I’ve figured out how to share the elevator with others as I make my way up to my office.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Rally Plays Music Resembling QAnon Song, and Crowds React - The New York Times'
Trump’s leaning into Q is not a good sign for the future.
link to ‘Trump Rally Plays Music Resembling QAnon Song, and Crowds React - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Social Network Parler Restructures, Focuses on ‘Uncancellable Economy’ - WSJ'
Look, Parler isn’t as bad as Gab, but this kind of softball, uncritical approach to the platform is not helpful. WSJ should know better.
link to ‘Social Network Parler Restructures, Focuses on ‘Uncancellable Economy’ - WSJ’
sticking with the Book of Mormon
I am a big fan of the Book of Mormon. It’s one of the reasons that I stuck with Community of Christ when transitioning out of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know the book is problematic, and I doubt its historicity, but I’m still an advocate for making some religious meaning out of it.
There are diverse opinions about the Book of Mormon in Community of Christ, and while there’s plenty of room to believe lots of different things, the default institutional view tends to be either indifferent or suspicious of the text.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Right After Primary Win, Bolduc Reverses Support for Election Lies - The New York Times'
What a cheap, cynical about-face. The fact that candidates think this is something they can do to drum up voters and then change strategy is worrying.
link to ‘Right After Primary Win, Bolduc Reverses Support for Election Lies - The New York Times’
Oaks and Benson on love of God and neighbor
Dallin Oaks, the second highest-ranking apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a speech at Brigham Young University yesterday where he touched on the “two great commandments” identified by Jesus in the Book of Mark. Unsurprisingly for anyone who’s been following recent signals of retrenchment at BYU (or anyone familiar with the apostle for that matter), Oaks put the two commandments in a particular order. Here’s how the Salt Lake Tribune quotes him:
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Everyone should join the “cult of privacy.”'
Caring about privacy ought to be common sense. It’s difficult to push back, but that doesn’t mean those of us who do are crazy.
link to ‘Everyone should join the “cult of privacy.”’
listening to Handel's Messiah in September
I’ve never had qualms about listening to Christmas music outside of December, but it still surprises me that I’ve been listening to parts of Handel’s Messiah during my morning routines over the past couple of weeks. I’ve never been the biggest fan of the music of Messiah, and in recent years, I’ve let go of my attachment to King James language and learned that a lot of the passages quoted in Messiah represent Christian prooftexting of the Hebrew Bible (here’s a great post on the subject by Pete Enns—and here’s another).
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Smartphone That Lasts a Decade? Yes, It’s Possible. - The New York Times'
I hope the Fairphone will be sold in the U.S. one day. It’s an awesome project.
link to ‘A Smartphone That Lasts a Decade? Yes, It’s Possible. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New Book Says NSA Pressured GCHQ To Shut Down Publication Of Snowden Leaks By UK Journalists | Techdirt'
Americans should be more worried about the NSA than they are.
link to ‘New Book Says NSA Pressured GCHQ To Shut Down Publication Of Snowden Leaks By UK Journalists | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'West Virginia, Kentucky officials repeatedly ignored plans to prepare for catastrophic floods. Residents are paying the price. – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
This is a tragic detail in an even more tragic story. Government can absolutely be good, and our allergic reaction to spending, laws, and policy only makes these situations worse.
link to ‘West Virginia, Kentucky officials repeatedly ignored plans to prepare for catastrophic floods. Residents are paying the price. – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s Time to Get Real About TikTok’s Risks | WIRED'
It isn’t that TikTok doesn’t pose a real threat, it’s that it’s not alone in doing so. In particular, I appreciate that this article points out that U.S. border agents REGULARLY SEARCH COMPUTERS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. So, yes, raise concerns, but be consistent instead of creating a moral panic around thus one app (which, by the way, would be a privacy threat even if it were totally owned by a U.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter’s edit button: You don’t really want it.'
A good case for why the edit button probably isn’t as good as everyone thinks.
link to ‘Twitter’s edit button: You don’t really want it.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Public Paid For Moderna’s mRNA Vaccine Tech; The Fact That Moderna Is Suing Over The Patent Is A Travesty | Techdirt'
Intellectual property is a social justice issue.
link to ‘The Public Paid For Moderna’s mRNA Vaccine Tech; The Fact That Moderna Is Suing Over The Patent Is A Travesty | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Humiliating History of the TSA'
What a story. I knew how awful the TSA could be to passengers, but I never knew how bad it also was for its own employees.
link to ‘The Humiliating History of the TSA’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Republicans Have Realized That Forcing People to Give Birth Is Wildly Unpopular'
This is very interesting—it gives me some hope that I haven’t had over the past couple of months.
link to ‘Republicans Have Realized That Forcing People to Give Birth Is Wildly Unpopular’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fayette board asks which option for local revenue citizens prefer | Lexington Herald Leader'
Speaking personally, I’d be happy to pay extra taxes to better support our local schools.
link to ‘Fayette board asks which option for local revenue citizens prefer | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'On Truth Social, QAnon Accounts Found a Home and Trump’s Support - The New York Times'
I don’t know that any of this is surprising, but it remains worrying.
link to ‘On Truth Social, QAnon Accounts Found a Home and Trump’s Support - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'BYU requires new hires to waive their right to clergy confidentiality'
The inconsistency here is infuriating. When I was in grad school, I had the philosophy that I (a Mormon working toward a PhD) couldn’t rule out the possibility of working at BYU. There’s still a lot that I like and respect about BYU, but seeing the way they’re putting the squeeze on their employees makes it clear that I could never have survived there.
link to ‘BYU requires new hires to waive their right to clergy confidentiality’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A BYU fan repeatedly called Duke volleyball player a racial slur during match in Utah, family says'
BYU is really on a roll this week.
link to ‘A BYU fan repeatedly called Duke volleyball player a racial slur during match in Utah, family says’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'BYU Tramples Queer Students, Again – Wheat & Tares'
Learned about the Trib article from this blog post, which I think also makes some solid points. It’s one thing to prefer that outside organizations not provide materials, but if BYU isn’t doing anything itself…
link to ‘BYU Tramples Queer Students, Again – Wheat & Tares’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'LGBTQ groups say BYU trashed their resource pamphlets'
What a disappointment.
link to ‘LGBTQ groups say BYU trashed their resource pamphlets’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lost in Transcription: Auto-Captions Often Fall Short on Zoom, Facebook, Others - Consumer Reports'
Great example of how automation often makes things easier but not better. The former can be good so long as we don’t lose sight of the latter.
link to ‘Lost in Transcription: Auto-Captions Often Fall Short on Zoom, Facebook, Others - Consumer Reports’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How YouTube’s Partnership with London’s Police Force is Censoring UK Drill Music | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
See, this is censorship.
link to ‘How YouTube’s Partnership with London’s Police Force is Censoring UK Drill Music | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Inside the World’s Biggest Hacker Rickroll | WIRED'
What an epic—if illegal—rickroll. The best part in my book is repurposing student monitoring software.
[link to ‘Inside the World’s Biggest Hacker Rickroll | WIRED’](https://www.wired.com/story/biggest-hacker-rickroll-high-school-prank/?mc_cid=b5e6da334c
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Erik Prince wants to sell you a secure smartphone that's too good to be true | MIT Technology Review'
Interesting read on privacy-focused phones—and related scams.
link to ‘Erik Prince wants to sell you a “secure” smartphone that’s too good to be true | MIT Technology Review’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'McConnell Dismisses the Threats to U.S. Democracy - The New York Times'
McConnell gets so close to recognizing the danger other Republicans pose to democracy, but he always stops just short.
link to ‘McConnell Dismisses the Threats to U.S. Democracy - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Removes Florida Political Candidate Advocating Shooting Federal Agents; If DeSantis Won His Lawsuit, Twitter Would Need To Leave It Up | Techdirt'
I appreciate the way that Masnick uses examples from the news to call out how dumb some of these laws are.
link to ‘Twitter Removes Florida Political Candidate Advocating Shooting Federal Agents; If DeSantis Won His Lawsuit, Twitter Would Need To Leave It Up | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gab Users Somehow Astounded To Discover Gab Will Comply With FBI Requests For User Information | Techdirt'
I read Torba’s blog post last week but hadn’t been aware of the context. Interesting read.
link to ‘Gab Users Somehow Astounded To Discover Gab Will Comply With FBI Requests For User Information | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal. - The New York Times'
This is why the EFF and others have concerns about overreach of even clearly well intentioned content moderation. CSAM is clearly despicable, but automated content moderation can make mistakes, and consequences for those mistakes aren’t small.
link to ‘A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google Maps Is Misleading Users Searching For Abortion Clinics… And The GOP Is Threatening The Company If It Fixes That | Techdirt'
Masnick makes two good points here: The GOP seems to only care about content moderation in self-serving ways, but also we should be wary of political mandates for content moderation.
link to ‘Google Maps Is Misleading Users Searching For Abortion Clinics… And The GOP Is Threatening The Company If It Fixes That | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fayette school board members ask to stream meetings online | Lexington Herald Leader'
I want to be more involved with and aware of what the FCPS school board is up to—livestreaming seems like a good idea to me.
link to ‘Fayette school board members ask to stream meetings online | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington KY looking to address more crime, safety issues | Lexington Herald Leader'
These numbers sound great, but what cost are we paying? I’m not talking about the $70,000, I’m talking about the hard to quantify costs of surveillance—which, as the ACLU of KY points out, are likely to disproportionately target communities of color. Except we can’t know that because the city won’t tell us where the cameras are.
link to ‘Lexington KY looking to address more crime, safety issues | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Streamez l'épisode A law professor explains “temple divorces,” and how they changed through the years | Episode 246 du podcast Mormon Land | Écoutez en ligne gratuitement sur SoundCloud'
This may be the most fascinating episode of Mormon Land I’ve ever listened to. It’s amazing how much the Latter-day Saint understanding and practice of temple rituals has changed over time.
link to ‘Streamez l’épisode A law professor explains “temple divorces,” and how they changed through the years | Episode 246 du podcast Mormon Land | Écoutez en ligne gratuitement sur SoundCloud’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump is Being Investigated for Potentially Violating the Espionage Act'
On one hand, I strongly believe Trump should be held accountable for all laws he’s broken or flouted. On the other, I believe that the Espionage Act has been used as a crude cudgel by several presidential administrations, and it’s really important not to be sloppy here. The second doesn’t outweigh the first, but just like one can defend the FBI raid without putting the FBI on a pedestal of infallibility, we need to be critically minded about all this.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'FBI Standoff Suspect Posted ‘Call to Arms’ on Trump's Truth Social'
Interesting development here.
link to ‘FBI Standoff Suspect Posted ‘Call to Arms’ on Trump’s Truth Social’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''Ring Nation' Is Amazon's Reality Show for Our Surveillance Dystopia'
Such a bad idea. Normalizing Ring won’t make it any better—only worse.
link to ‘‘Ring Nation’ Is Amazon’s Reality Show for Our Surveillance Dystopia’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s Not Just Trump — LBJ Took Classified Documents Too'
I was not aware of this episode of history, and I feel more informed for it. It’s an example of where a Democratic president should be held to the same standard as Trump is being held right now—not out of any kind of whataboutism, but because both presidents crossed lines. In fact, “both” isn’t right here: Nixon comes out of this looking as bad as (if not worse than) Johnson.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why none of my books are available on Audible | Cory Doctorow's craphound.com'
Doctorow convinced me years ago that Audible was terrible, but here, he showed me just how bad they are.
link to ‘Why none of my books are available on Audible | Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Mormons are addressing sex abuse: Too little, too late'
Appreciate Jana’s perspective on this horrible story.
link to ‘How Mormons are addressing sex abuse: Too little, too late’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'No cap, Sen. Mike Lee’s personal Twitter account is called ‘BasedMikeLee’ - The Verge'
Lots of directions to go with this one, but “based” is the red pill red flag for me. Lee is (unsurprisingly) borrowing the language of the far right.
link to ‘No cap, Sen. Mike Lee’s personal Twitter account is called ‘BasedMikeLee’ - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion'
Compelling example of the need for digital privacy in a post-Row world.
link to ‘This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Republicans Are Suddenly Very Eager to Defund the Police'
I’ve been thinking this since yesterday. It’s telling how so many “law and order” conservatives who make a big deal about being pro-police reverse on those positions as soon as law enforcement is inconvenient for them.
link to ‘Republicans Are Suddenly Very Eager to Defund the Police’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Even Before the FBI Search, MAGA World Was Saying It's at War'
A worrying look at CPAC. What is happening to the Republican Party?
link to ‘Even Before the FBI Search, MAGA World Was Saying It’s at War’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Supporters Are Calling for Civil War After FBI Search of Mar-a-Lago'
McCarthy isn’t saying the same thing as these Telegram channels, but he’s making it easier for them to say what they’re saying.
link to ‘Trump Supporters Are Calling for Civil War After FBI Search of Mar-a-Lago’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky candidates struggle when describing 2020 election | Lexington Herald Leader'
Disappointing but unsurprising.
link to ‘Kentucky candidates struggle when describing 2020 election | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Few Minor, and Hopefully Helpful Editing Suggestions on the LDS Church’s Recent Statement about Abuse | By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog'
I’ve long lacked confidence in my own opinions (as a general rule—I can also be an opinionated jerk), so even the simplest disagreement with a position I’ve taken can take some wind out of my sails. When I read the official Latter-day Saint response to the recent AP story, I didn’t agree with it, but it still slowed me down some. “Maybe I should consider things from another point of view,” I thought.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pluralistic: 07 Aug 2022 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
Why do we let inkjet printers get away with this nonsense?
link to ‘Pluralistic: 07 Aug 2022 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Teen Who Helped Expose the Boy Scouts’ Pedophilia Epidemic, and the Mormon Church’s Cover-Up'
This reporting is from a couple of years ago, but I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time, and recent events make me regret that.
link to ‘The Teen Who Helped Expose the Boy Scouts’ Pedophilia Epidemic, and the Mormon Church’s Cover-Up’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a ‘public debate’ about bots - The Verge'
Musk continues his trolling. This is a dumb proposal, and Twitter shouldn’t accept it.
link to ‘Elon Musk challenges Twitter CEO to a ‘public debate’ about bots - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Buys Roomba Company, Will Now Map Inside of Your House'
Some good points about how Amazon owning Roomba is scarier than just Roomba existing on its own—even if I didn’t realize that Roomba was creepily mapping houses.
link to ‘Amazon Buys Roomba Company, Will Now Map Inside of Your House’
should I stay or should I go?
I haven’t attended the Latter-day Saint congregation I officially belong to since March of 2020, and I’m coming up on one year of being an official member of Community of Christ. It’s pretty clear to me—and, likely, to others—where my religious future is headed.
Yet, I’ve always expected that I would remain a de jure—if not de facto—member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even if it’s not the right spiritual home for me or my family any more, and even if I have major disagreements with it, this church has been an important part of my life, and I’ve always wanted to preserve that by retaining my official membership.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Buying Roomba Maker iRobot for $1.7 Billion - WSJ'
Amazon keeps getting bigger, and I don’t think that’s for the better.
link to ‘Amazon Buying Roomba Maker iRobot for $1.7 Billion - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Mormon church sex abuse: AP investigation | AP News'
This is a horrifying, sickening story. When it’s marriage equality, the Church is eager to say that being legal doesn’t make something right (a bad take, for the record), so to hear “it was fine because it was legal” as a defense for bishops’ failure to report child sexual abuse (at Salt Lake’s encouragement) is sickening.
link to ‘Mormon church sex abuse: AP investigation | AP News’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Study Says Trump’s Truth Social Is Much More Aggressive, And Much More Arbitrary, In Moderating Content | Techdirt'
Unsurprising, but still a valuable read.
link to ‘Study Says Trump’s Truth Social Is Much More Aggressive, And Much More Arbitrary, In Moderating Content | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Hiroshima and Nagasaki Are Not Just History: The Horrors of Nuclear Weapons Live On | Friends Committee On National Legislation'
I don’t believe nuclear disarmament will be easy, but I’m increasingly convinced that it must be done. Just a single mistake or miscommunication could doom our entire planet.
link to ‘Hiroshima and Nagasaki Are Not Just History: The Horrors of Nuclear Weapons Live On | Friends Committee On National Legislation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Voters in Kansas decide to keep abortion legal in the state, rejecting an amendment – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
There’s a similar amendment on the ballot in Kentucky in November; here’s hoping for similar results.
link to ‘Voters in Kansas decide to keep abortion legal in the state, rejecting an amendment – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
'Belgian French' and the intentional awkwardness of LDS Book of Mormon translation
This week and last, I’ve been reading up on Mormons’ commitment to both the language of the King James Version (Philip Barlow’s Mormons and the Bible is a fantastic read) and what is seen as the authoritative text of the Book of Mormon. In Paul Gutjahr’s The Book of Mormon: A Biography, he quotes the official Latter-day Saint Scripture Translation Manual as including the following guidelines for translators of the Book of Mormon:
believers who rob others of belief
Nearly a year ago, a friend gave me a copy of Thomas Merton’s New Seeds of Contemplation as a gift for my confirmation into Community of Christ. It (obviously) took me a while to start it, and it’s taking me some time to read through it, but there’s a lot in there that I like. This afternoon, this passage stood out to me:
Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God, for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice, your mediocrity and materialism, your sensuality and selfishness that have killed his faith.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'At least 25 people have died in Kentucky's floods, governor says : NPR'
We’ve had a rough year of natural disasters.
link to ‘At least 25 people have died in Kentucky’s floods, governor says : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Tech We Won’t Build — The Internet Health Report 2022'
Compelling podcast episode from Mozilla highlighting morally dubious uses of AI. It’s really important that we be more reflective about this instead of trying things and seeing where they lead.
link to ‘The Tech We Won’t Build — The Internet Health Report 2022’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gun-makers made millions marketing AR-15-style guns as a sign of manhood : NPR'
So much of modern right-wing politics boils down to concerns about masculinity.
link to ‘Gun-makers made millions marketing AR-15-style guns as a sign of manhood : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Doug Mastriano Faces Criticism Over His Backing From Antisemitic Ally - The New York Times'
I knew that Gab was supporting Mastriano, but I didn’t realize ties ran this deep. Gab is a toxic hellhole, and if Mastriano is sending them money, that should rule him out as a candidate.
link to ‘Doug Mastriano Faces Criticism Over His Backing From Antisemitic Ally - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Zuckerberg: Apple, Meta are in “deep, philosophical competition” | Ars Technica'
Look, I’m a critic of Apple’s closed system, but it’s laughable for Meta to set itself up as an oprn alternative.
link to ‘Zuckerberg: Apple, Meta are in “deep, philosophical competition” | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Indiana doctor says she has been harassed since providing 10-year-old's abortion : NPR'
This case seems so clear cut to me, and the American right’s willingness to harass this doctor suggests that things are going very wrong.
link to ‘Indiana doctor says she has been harassed since providing 10-year-old’s abortion : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘Christ Is King’: Man Allegedly Vandalized Bakery Hosting Drag Show'
I didn’t know Fuentes was also using “Christ is King,” but it’s a favorite of Gab’s Andrew Torba, too.
link to ‘‘Christ Is King’: Man Allegedly Vandalized Bakery Hosting Drag Show’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Stranger People | Times & Seasons'
I haven’t watched Stranger Things 4, but it’s interesting how media depictions of Mormonism often get some of the details wrong, folding it in with broader conservative Christianity instead of focusing on its unique weirdness. This often confused me as a kid, especially when adults would wonder if I were allowed to play games with supernatural themes or… sing songs?
link to ‘Stranger People | Times & Seasons’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Police Are Still Abusing Investigative Exemptions to Shield Surveillance Tech, While Others Move Towards Transparency | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Who is allowed to watch the watchmen? This is why I’m grumpy about Lexington being hush hush about its new automated license plate readers—it sets a precedent for secretive use of even more invasive surveillance.
link to ‘Police Are Still Abusing Investigative Exemptions to Shield Surveillance Tech, While Others Move Towards Transparency | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Republicans Sharpen Post-Roe Attacks on L.G.B.T.Q. Rights - The New York Times'
Worrying days ahead. There’s a lot being said on Gab that’s spilling out into “mainstream” GOP discourse.
link to ‘Republicans Sharpen Post-Roe Attacks on L.G.B.T.Q. Rights - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Is So Sure Its Erroneous Blocking Of Music Is Right, There’s No Option To Say It’s Wrong | Techdirt'
Intellectual property is important, but copyright filters are an absolute mess.
link to ‘Facebook Is So Sure Its Erroneous Blocking Of Music Is Right, There’s No Option To Say It’s Wrong | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Josh Hawley Just Gave Us the How It Started/How It’s Going for Jan. 6'
What cynicism to support people you once literally ran away from because you think it’s politically advantageous.
link to ‘Josh Hawley Just Gave Us the How It Started/How It’s Going for Jan. 6’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'At long last, a photo of Mormon founder Joseph Smith emerges'
Some more coverage of the (possible) photo find. This is the only news I’ve ever read related to facial recognition software that I’ve been happy rather than grumpy about 😂
link to ‘At long last, a photo of Mormon founder Joseph Smith emerges’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Mormon founder Joseph Smith's photo discovered by descendant after nearly 180 years'
Whoa. Big news here. My feelings about Joseph Jr. are complicated, but it’s very cool to see a possible photograph of him.
link to ‘Mormon founder Joseph Smith’s photo discovered by descendant after nearly 180 years’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Oklahoma Threatens Librarians: ‘Don’t Use the Word Abortion’'
Libraries are a key part of a democratic society, and this is a very worrying development.
link to ‘Oklahoma Threatens Librarians: ‘Don’t Use the Word Abortion’’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'With midterms in sight, few Republicans are defending Trump as they did in 2019 : NPR'
Look, there may be less of a coordinated defense, but ignoring the Jan. 6th hearings is almost as bad as defending Trump from them.
link to ‘With midterms in sight, few Republicans are defending Trump as they did in 2019 : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Platforms Are Censoring Nude Content. Here’s Why You Should Care | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Here’s the EFF pointing out that “free speech” on these platforms means something very particular rather than a broad, deep commitment to legally-protected expression.
link to ‘Self-Proclaimed Free Speech Platforms Are Censoring Nude Content. Here’s Why You Should Care | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'DHS bought “shocking amount” of warrantless phone-tracking data, ACLU says | Ars Technica'
Opting out of location sharing is a good and important step, but there are no tech solutions to this horror—only political ones. We need good legislation, and we need it now.
link to ‘DHS bought “shocking amount” of warrantless phone-tracking data, ACLU says | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Arizona Makes It Illegal To Record Cops From Less Than Eight Feet Away | Techdirt'
It’s funny how conditional the GOP’s concerns about free speech are. That’s not to say that free speech isn’t a complicated topic to be weighed in conjunction with other concerns—it absolutely is. But if a party wants to use a simplistic view of free speech as a rallying cry, stunts like this show how just how simplistic that view is.
link to ‘Arizona Makes It Illegal To Record Cops From Less Than Eight Feet Away | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'TikTok resists calls to preserve Ukraine content for war crime investigations | Ars Technica'
So, here’s a case where TikTok’s Chinese ownership is actually a really big deal—though, of course, YouTube and other U.S. companies have also been quicker to moderate than to archive material that could be valuable in a similar way.
link to ‘TikTok resists calls to preserve Ukraine content for war crime investigations | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Independence schools ban book for gender content – The Beacon'
I’m glad the article identifies Art as an apostle for Community of Christ, to emphasize that it’s entirely possible to be affirming and Christian. Coming from Mormonism, I’m not used to the idea of apostles standing up for queer causes, so as gross as the book removal is, I’m grateful for Art’s example here.
link to ‘Independence schools ban book for gender content – The Beacon’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ubisoft Teaches Customers They Don’t Own All That DLC They ‘Bought’ | Techdirt'
Ugh. We “buy” too many things this way.
link to ‘Ubisoft Teaches Customers They Don’t Own All That DLC They ‘Bought’ | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Anti-Abortion Leader Tells Congress a 10-Year-Old’s Abortion Wouldn’t Count'
This strikes me as weaselly logic. It absolutely is an abortion, and it’s absolutely why it’s shamefully ridiculous to make simplistic claims about abortion as murder or to set up “zero abortions” as an ideal to be attained through legislation and jurisprudence.
link to ‘Anti-Abortion Leader Tells Congress a 10-Year-Old’s Abortion Wouldn’t Count’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Man Arrested for Rape of 10-Year-Old Abortion Patient the Right Said Was Fake'
I didn’t realize there’d been so much right-wing pushback against this awful, awful story. There’s always room for good faith critical appraisals of the news, but what critics seem to me to miss here is that even if it weren’t true, the mere hypothetical possibility of something like this happening is shameful. That said, the emergence of more evidence supporting the claims is not a great look for those who called it into question.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'BMW’s Push To Make Heated Seats A $18 Per Month Subscription Portends A Dumb And Costly Future | Techdirt'
This is such a dumb development. Why are we letting technology whittle away at ownership instead of increasing access to things?
link to ‘BMW’s Push To Make Heated Seats A $18 Per Month Subscription Portends A Dumb And Costly Future | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Admits Giving Police Ring Footage Without Consent'
It’s concerning to see private surveillance prop up public surveillance like this.
link to ‘Amazon Admits Giving Police Ring Footage Without Consent’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Watch New York City's new nuclear war PSA | Boing Boing'
Just the idea that NYC feels like it needs to keep people educated about what to do in case of a nuclear attack is enough to add some existential dread to my Tuesday.
link to ‘Watch New York City’s new nuclear war PSA | Boing Boing’
thoughts on Joseph, Jesus, and fundamentalism
Over the past several months, I’ve been slowly working my way through Mark Scherer’s three-volume The Journey of a People, the most recent quasi-official history of Community of Christ. The first volume was interesting, since it covered an era of Mormon history that I’m familiar with from a perspective that I’m not familiar with. I found the second volume a bit harder to get through—some individual sections were fascinating, but it seemed to lack an overall throughline or narrative.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington, KY writer Ada Limón is the next US poet laureate | Lexington Herald Leader'
I haven’t read Limón’s poetry (I don’t read much poetry at all), but I’ll have to change that. Happy for some Kentucky and Lexington representation in this way.
link to ‘Lexington, KY writer Ada Limón is the next US poet laureate | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Bayraktar TB2 Drone Sales from Turkey Growing Despite Western Laws — ProPublica'
A deep dive on a worrying military technology. The U.S. has already done a lot of damage with drones, and as more countries start to use them, more damage is going to be done.
[link to ‘Bayraktar TB2 Drone Sales from Turkey Growing Despite Western Laws — ProPublica’](https://www.propublica.org/article/bayraktar-tb2-drone-turkey-exports
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Major American Companies to Schools: Expand Access to Computer Science'
Look, I’m not opposed to expanding computer science education, but if the motivation is to fill jobs and keep tech giants thriving, that seems to me to be a red flag. Education ought to focus on democracy above the economy; we need to be producing citizens, not employees. There are ways to teach tech in a way that supports democracy and produces citizens, but if I get grumpy about computer science educstion, it’s because we rarely talk about it that way.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Sony Removes 100s Of Movies Bought Through PS Store | Techdirt'
This is why I’m trying to buy more physical copies of things—or at least DRM-free stuff. I have lots of regrets about the size of my Kindle library, for example.
link to ‘You Don’t Own What You’ve Bought: Sony Removes 100s Of Movies Bought Through PS Store | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Uber lobbied and used 'stealth' tech to block scrutiny, according to new report : NPR'
This seems pretty gross so far. I wonder how much more will come out of these leaks.
link to ‘Uber lobbied and used ‘stealth’ tech to block scrutiny, according to new report : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk’s Attempt To Get Out Of The Twitter Deal Proceeding Exactly As Predicted; What Happens Next? | Techdirt'
I always appreciate Masnick’s going into the legal details that are above my head. Techdirt has proven to be one of the most helpful sources for understanding this fiasco.
link to ‘Musk’s Attempt To Get Out Of The Twitter Deal Proceeding Exactly As Predicted; What Happens Next? | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk officially tries to bail on buying Twitter - The Verge'
Best line: “Musk seemed to relish the ability to make wishful product plans about free speech and corporate independence more than he wanted to develop a coherent business plan for Twitter.”
link to ‘Elon Musk officially tries to bail on buying Twitter - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New York gun applicants will have to submit their social accounts for review : NPR'
Gun control is good, but surveillance isn’t. I don’t think this is the answer.
link to ‘New York gun applicants will have to submit their social accounts for review : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Is Ready for a Potential Legal Battle With Elon Musk - The New York Times'
What an enormous mess this is turning into.
link to ‘Twitter Is Ready for a Potential Legal Battle With Elon Musk - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marco Rubio Pretends To Be A TikTok Privacy Champion, Despite Years Of Undermining U.S. Consumer Privacy | Techdirt'
Concern about privacy is good, but not when it’s Sinophobic posturing. Yes, what TikTok is doing is worrying and problematic, but Bode makes an important point here: If they aren’t willing to fix the broader infrastructure, stances like Rubio’s just come down to trying to score cheap political points.
link to ‘Marco Rubio Pretends To Be A TikTok Privacy Champion, Despite Years Of Undermining U.S. Consumer Privacy | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky school district bans backpacks for older students | Lexington Herald Leader'
I went to high school post Columbine, so we could only use mesh or clear backpacks and were required to wear IDs at all times. Even at the time, that felt like security theater. Schools can’t solve this problem with decisions like these–we need to decide as a society to rethink our relationship with guns.
link to ‘Kentucky school district bans backpacks for older students | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'US carriers want to bring “screen zero” lock screen ads to smartphones | Ars Technica'
I’m glad I got out of the Kindle game before they did on-screen ads. This feels dystopian.
link to ‘US carriers want to bring “screen zero” lock screen ads to smartphones | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Learn English: The Anglicization of the Church | Times & Seasons'
Very interesting look at Anglocentrism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
link to ‘Learn English: The Anglicization of the Church | Times & Seasons’
is the Book of Mormon's Gideon a convert to peace and nonviolence?
When I made the decision to join Community of Christ, it wasn’t (just) because this was a denomination that aligned with my current religious and social values, but because I knew it would be a denomination that pushed me to improve my current religious and social values. I know that I have room to grow in being a better person and in making the world a better place, and I felt that Community of Christ is a denomination that would not only show me grace for who I was but also walk with me as I tried to grow in these ways.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'U.S. Supreme Court takes on the independent state legislature theory : NPR'
Worrying ideas here—American democracy feels more and more tenuous.
link to ‘U.S. Supreme Court takes on the independent state legislature theory : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Bans People For Simply Saying Abortion Pills Exist | Techdirt'
A terrifying teminder that content moderation can easily overreach.
link to ‘Facebook Bans People For Simply Saying Abortion Pills Exist | Techdirt’
what does 'the Lord' mean in the Book of Mormon?
One recurring question that I’ve had while working on my “rereading the Book of Mormon” project is asking what should be understood by the common phrase “the Lord” in the text of this book of scripture. In Bible translations, this is a bit more straightforward: “the Lord” is often used as a euphemism for the divine name YHWH and could be read in that way. Before going any further with this discussion, I want to acknowledge that my writing out and speculating on the divine name here may (or will likely) be seen as disrespectful or offensive by many Jews (and even some Christians—I admire Wil Gafney’s approach to the divine name).
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amtrak Spent 11 Years and $450 Million to Save Acela Riders 100 Seconds'
Fitting that I’m reading this the day after booking Acela tickets. Fits with what I’ve said in the past: Northeast Corridor is great, but lets bring trains elsewhere too.
link to ‘Amtrak Spent 11 Years and $450 Million to Save Acela Riders 100 Seconds’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How 'Peanuts' creator Charles Schulz pushed for Title IX in the 1970s : NPR'
I had no idea about this history, and I think it’s fun!
link to ‘How ‘Peanuts’ creator Charles Schulz pushed for Title IX in the 1970s : NPR’
anxiety, privilege, and trying to make a difference
A couple of weekends ago, I had my first experience with a Community of Christ Reunion camp. Kiddo and I only stayed for a long weekend rather than the whole week, but it was still a great experience. By far the best experience I had at Reunion was a Monday morning class for young adults and “90s kids” (which is not a label I’ve ever actively applied to myself, but it fit just fine.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird | Techdirt'
Good writing here. Vague Sinophobia drives a lot of media and political concerns, and I appreciate Bode’s challenging of that here.
link to ‘The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump team didn't have the evidence and 4 other takeaways from Jan. 6 hearing : NPR'
‘I just know in my heart’ is terrible and terrifying reasoning for posing this level of a threat to democracy.
link to ‘Trump team didn’t have the evidence and 4 other takeaways from Jan. 6 hearing : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Impossibility Theorem Strikes Again: YouTube Deletes January 6th Committee Video | Techdirt'
Good example here of how content moderation can absolutely overreach. Arguments that platforms shouldn’t moderate are nonsense, but I appreciate Masnick’s emphasis on the need to be very careful about how we moderate.
link to ‘Impossibility Theorem Strikes Again: YouTube Deletes January 6th Committee Video | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Researcher Hacks Into Backend for Network of Smart Jacuzzis'
Yet another example of why I’m wary of smart devices.
link to ‘Researcher Hacks Into Backend for Network of Smart Jacuzzis’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas GOP's new platform says Biden didn't really win the 2020 election : NPR'
I get that some of this is bluster and posturing, but that doesn’t make it any less worrying. This is the same state GOP that leaned into Gab a year or two ago.
link to ‘Texas GOP’s new platform says Biden didn’t really win the 2020 election : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'There's a legal battle over burkinis in France : NPR'
I have never understood the panic about burkinis. It’s one of many examples where French laïcité goes further than appropriate and desirable secularism.
link to ‘There’s a legal battle over burkinis in France : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky court delves into use of cell phones for tracking | AP News'
Good for the court, though the narrow majority is disappointing.
link to ‘Kentucky court delves into use of cell phones for tracking | AP News’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amid Jan. 6 Revelations, Election Lies Still Dominate the G.O.P. - The New York Times'
This is more worrying to me—and more damning for the GOP—than anything that happened on January 6th.
link to ‘Amid Jan. 6 Revelations, Election Lies Still Dominate the G.O.P. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '4 takeaways from the third Jan. 6 hearing : NPR'
Pence deserves credit for the steps he took on January 6th, but I agree that he has responsibilities to do more right now.
link to ‘4 takeaways from the third Jan. 6 hearing : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Attorney Eastman Admitted His Jan. 6 Plot Was Illegal—and Asked for a Pardon'
All of this is worrying, but not as worrying as the possibility that it won’t make a difference in the minds of people who should be outraged.
link to ‘Trump Attorney Eastman Admitted His Jan. 6 Plot Was Illegal—and Asked for a Pardon’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup'
Well this is terrifying.
link to ‘Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites – The Markup’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '$1-2 Billion In Streaming Ads A Year Aren’t Being Watched Because The TV Is Off | Techdirt'
I mean, there’s still plenty to be worried about when it comes to targeted advertising and smart TVs, but this is a good reminder to take a step back.
link to ‘$1-2 Billion In Streaming Ads A Year Aren’t Being Watched Because The TV Is Off | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'What the Latter-day Saint hymn ‘Love at Home’ has to do with blackface'
So, so many wild things in this article. I grew up loving this hymn and had no idea it had roots in blackface minstrelsy. Hope the Church will take it out of its next hymnbook, but I’m not holding my breath. The real kicker is Brigham Young’s concern about blackface—not because it’s racist but because it’s degrading to white people.
link to ‘What the Latter-day Saint hymn ‘Love at Home’ has to do with blackface’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook Says Apple is Too Powerful. They're Right. | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Doctorow is spot on here. Apple may be the most benevolent of the big tech companies, but it still has far too much power over its users.
link to ‘Facebook Says Apple is Too Powerful. They’re Right. | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
participation in June 12th Beyond the Walls online service
A few weeks ago, John Hamer (from the Toronto-based Beyond the Walls inclusive online congregation of Community of Christ) reached out to ask if I would be interested in contributing a pre-recorded prayer to a June 12th “millennial prayer service” focused on Community of Christ’s Enduring Principles. The denomination describes its Enduring Principles as follows:
Our Enduring Principles define the essence, heart, and soul of our faith community. They describe the personality of our church as expressed throughout the world.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Sweeping Legislation Aims to Ban the Sale of Location Data'
Yes please.
link to ‘Sweeping Legislation Aims to Ban the Sale of Location Data’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A far-right plan to riot near an Idaho LGBTQ event heightens safety concerns at Pride : NPR'
Given the aggressively queerphobic language I’ve read on Gab, events like this are worrying but not surprising. More worrying is the way that this queerphobic language is increasingly used in the mainstream GOP. How do Republican politicians and voters feel about these events?
link to ‘A far-right plan to riot near an Idaho LGBTQ event heightens safety concerns at Pride : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Senator Declares Amazon Ring's Audio Surveillance Capabilities 'Threaten the Public' | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
I’ve been plenty spooked by Ring’s video capabilities, but apparently I haven’t been worried enough about its audio surveillance.
link to ‘Senator Declares Amazon Ring’s Audio Surveillance Capabilities ‘Threaten the Public’ | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'EFF’s Flagship Jewel v. NSA Dragnet Spying Case Rejected by the Supreme Court | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Disappointing news, but glad for the fight that the EFF and others are waging.
link to ‘EFF’s Flagship Jewel v. NSA Dragnet Spying Case Rejected by the Supreme Court | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How the Federal Government Buys Our Cell Phone Location Data | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
The only thing worse than the already-bad reality of powerful, private data brokers is public agencies buying what they have to sell.
link to ‘How the Federal Government Buys Our Cell Phone Location Data | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Social Network, Truth Social, Is Banning People For Truthing The Truth About January 6 Hearings | Techdirt'
This is a peak example of what performative concerns about “free speech” boil down to.
link to ‘Trump’s ‘Free Speech’ Social Network, Truth Social, Is Banning People For Truthing The Truth About January 6 Hearings | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Big Tech Has Spent $36 Million on Ads to Torpedo Antitrust Bill - WSJ'
I haven’t read much about this bill, but it’s worrying that powerful entities have such an advantage in the debate about limiting their power.
link to ‘Big Tech Has Spent $36 Million on Ads to Torpedo Antitrust Bill - WSJ’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Telecom Lobbyists Are About To Scuttle The Nomination Of A Popular Reformer To The FCC And Nobody Much Seems To Care | Techdirt'
Depressing read, though I’ll freely admit I haven’t been paying enough attention here myself.
link to ‘Telecom Lobbyists Are About To Scuttle The Nomination Of A Popular Reformer To The FCC And Nobody Much Seems To Care | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The linguistics search engine that overturned the federal mask mandate - The Verge'
Very, very interesting read on how the purported objectivity of big data is influencing how (conservative) judges use corpus linguistics.
link to ‘The linguistics search engine that overturned the federal mask mandate - The Verge’
should 'Hades' appear in the Book of Mormon?
A few weeks ago, I posted about Book of Mormon dependence on the King James Version and the way that that sometimes raises interesting questions about how the text should be understood. As I continue my project of what a modern-language version of the Book of Mormon might look like, I’ve run into another example.
1 Corinthians 15:55 is referenced three times in the Book of Mormon, including in Mosiah 8 (Mosiah 16 LDS), where I’m currently working my way through the text.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Threatens to End Twitter Deal Without Information on Spam Accounts - The New York Times'
What a mess. Glad to be pivoting toward my blog and Mastodon.
link to ‘Elon Musk Threatens to End Twitter Deal Without Information on Spam Accounts - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Axon Halts Plans to Sell Flying Taser Drones to Schools'
What’s the point in having an ethics board if you’re going to so flagrantly ignore them? Good on members for responding with resignations, and thank goodness Axon woke up to how dunb their decision was.
link to ‘Axon Halts Plans to Sell Flying Taser Drones to Schools’
an 'ultimate sense of FOMO' and joining Community of Christ
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been putting a lot of work into adjusting my online presence, a project that I expect to last through most of the summer. In dividing my website into distinct subareas and pivoting from a single Twitter account to a number of Mastodon accounts, I’m trying to do something about the context collapse that’s been keeping me from sharing some of the big things going on in my life lately.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Firm proposes Taser-armed drones to stop school shootings : NPR'
This is unbelievably dumb. School shootings can’t be solved by technology—it’s a social and political problem. Shame on Axon.
link to ‘Firm proposes Taser-armed drones to stop school shootings : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Internet Can Still Be Small And Nice, But It’s On All Of Us To Make That Work | Techdirt'
Some good thoughts by Masnick on a good op-ed by Wheaton.
link to ‘The Internet Can Still Be Small And Nice, But It’s On All Of Us To Make That Work | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Our Obsession With Gas Prices Is Driving America Nuts'
I have long been skeptical of gas prices as a talking point. Some interesting thoughts in here.
link to ‘Our Obsession With Gas Prices Is Driving America Nuts’
Dallin Oaks and Marjorie Taylor Greene on heterosexual extinction
Thanks to a recommendation from BoingBoing, I just finished reading a Business Insider article describing a recent video in which Marjorie Taylor Greene:
predicted that identifying as heterosexual will be a thing of the past within a period of less than 200 years thanks to LGBTQ-inclusive sex educators, who she called “trans terrorists.”
More specifically, Greene was quoted as saying that heterosexual extinction would come about “probably in about four or five generations.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Two-Thirds of Republicans Believe Great Replacement Theory, New Poll Shows'
GOP has some reckoning to do.
link to ‘Two-Thirds of Republicans Believe Great Replacement Theory, New Poll Shows’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites - The New York Times'
Content moderation is a good thing, and ‘free speech’ should not be our primary concern when it comes to social media platforms.
link to ‘Racist and Violent Ideas Jump From Web’s Fringes to Mainstream Sites - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'A Reporter Reflects on Covering Seven Mass Shootings — ProPublica'
This is difficult but important to read. As gut wrenching as these shootings are, I am still distant enough from them that they don’t always stick with me. It’s helpful if depressing to read about what sticks with others who are closer to them.
[link to ‘A Reporter Reflects on Covering Seven Mass Shootings — ProPublica’](https://www.propublica.org/article/shooting-news-msm-reporter-essay
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'McConnell mum on guns as U.S. Senate recesses for a week – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Disappointing but unsurprising. I wish McConnell would show as much willingness to call out Republicans on guns as he does for Ukraine.
link to ‘McConnell mum on guns as U.S. Senate recesses for a week – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Richard Scarry's 21st Century Classroom | Boing Boing'
Tom the Dancing Bug is usually just the right level of dark.
link to ‘Richard Scarry’s 21st Century Classroom | Boing Boing’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '‘It Was the Wrong Decision’: Uvalde Cops Waited in Hallway as Kids Called 911 Begging to Be Saved From Gunman'
It makes me sick and angry to read all of this. We have so badly failed the children of this country.
link to ‘‘It Was the Wrong Decision’: Uvalde Cops Waited in Hallway as Kids Called 911 Begging to Be Saved From Gunman’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ted Cruz walks away after reporter asks him why mass shootings keep happening : NPR'
Imagine thinking that this is the price we pay for American exceptionalism. Imagine thinking that mourning these children and wanting to do something about it is a partisan agenda.
link to ‘Ted Cruz walks away after reporter asks him why mass shootings keep happening : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''Under the Banner of Heaven' raises the question: Are Mormons dangerous?'
I suspect that there is nothing as damning in Mormon history as Mormons’ failure to own up to that history, and Jana’s writing here captures that nicely.
link to ‘‘Under the Banner of Heaven’ raises the question: Are Mormons dangerous?’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on ''The Onion' has reused this satire after more than 20 mass shootings since 2014 : NPR'
This is one of the best things The Onion has ever done.
link to ‘‘The Onion’ has reused this satire after more than 20 mass shootings since 2014 : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Florida student suing over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ uses curly hair as commencement speech code | The Hill'
Love this.
link to ‘Florida student suing over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ uses curly hair as commencement speech code | The Hill’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The election system shuddered in 2020. Now, there are fears of an attack within : NPR'
Fascinating (if worrying) article on just how important the basic mechanics of an election are.
link to ‘The election system shuddered in 2020. Now, there are fears of an attack within : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why we need a public internet and how to get one - The Verge'
Lots of interesting ideas in this interview. I particularly like libraries running Mastodon instances.
link to ‘Why we need a public internet and how to get one - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Clearview AI ordered to delete facial recognition data belonging to UK residents - The Verge'
Let’s do the same in the U.S., please.
link to ‘Clearview AI ordered to delete facial recognition data belonging to UK residents - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pence, Tiptoeing Away From Trump, Lays Groundwork for ’24 Run - The New York Times'
I don’t think I want a Pence presidency any more than another Trump one, but I do want to see the GOP wrestle with what it’s going to be going forward.
link to ‘Pence, Tiptoeing Away From Trump, Lays Groundwork for ’24 Run - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Trump’s 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures - The New York Times'
Glad that there hasn’t been much conversation about this in Kentucky, but it’s still really worrying stuff.
link to ‘How Trump’s 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures - The New York Times’
Book of Mormon dependence on the King James Version
It’s a bit of a truism to say that the Book of Mormon is dependent on Biblical language, but one thing that’s been on my mind for the past few years (especially since reading Thomas Wayment’s excellent The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saints) is how specifically dependent it is on the particular language of the King James Version of the Bible.
Over the past year or so, as a personal project, I’ve been toying around with what a modern-language version of the Book of Mormon would look like.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Beshear, KDP will not back Democratic candidate for U.S. House seat'
Pretty upset about these results from the primary. I voted for the other candidate and was shocked to find Young won. At least I have a few months to figure out who to write in.
link to ‘Beshear, KDP will not back Democratic candidate for U.S. House seat’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Madison Cawthorn is beaten in North Carolina's GOP primary : NPR'
Last night, I had a bizarre dream that I was telling Ted Cruz that he was a jerk but that I didn’t mind when it was directed at Madison Cawthorn. Don’t know if that fully reflects my waking views, and don’t know anything about the victor here, but I am glad to see Cawthorn lose.
link to ‘Madison Cawthorn is beaten in North Carolina’s GOP primary : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How the Buffalo shooting livestream went viral - The Verge'
Content moderation is (sometimes) a good thing.
link to ‘How the Buffalo shooting livestream went viral - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'We're Suing Kentucky Prisons for Violating the First Amendment | ACLU of Kentucky'
Religious freedom isn’t worth anything if it’s only a shield for conservative Christianity.
link to ‘We’re Suing Kentucky Prisons for Violating the First Amendment | ACLU of Kentucky’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ in Current State - The New York Times'
What a troll. Even if the deal falls through, the way in which a sole rich dude can mess around with Twitter is souring me on the platform.
link to ‘Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal ‘Cannot Move Forward’ in Current State - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter'
If QAnon is excited, the rest of us should be worried—though I think there is a possibility that Musk realizes just how bad his ideas re: limiting moderation are and fails to deliver.
link to ‘QAnon Thinks Elon Musk Is Going to Let Them Back On Twitter’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'En rachetant Twitter, 'Elon Musk a un projet politique derrière la tête', estime un journaliste qui a enquêté sur l'homme le plus riche du monde'
Et bien oui, ça me paraît très évident.
link to ‘En rachetant Twitter, “Elon Musk a un projet politique derrière la tête”, estime un journaliste qui a enquêté sur l’homme le plus riche du monde’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times'
Say it together now: Content moderation and free speech are different things.
link to ‘Conservatives celebrate Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge'
The quotes in here underline how often ‘free speech’ is used to mean ‘problematic right-wing talking points.’
link to ‘Trump says he won’t leave Truth Social, despite Musk’s Twitter takeover - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
EFF cares about and actually understands free speech and content moderation, so their voice is especially important today.
link to ‘Twitter Has a New Owner. Here’s What He Should Do. | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company - The Verge'
Not excited about this, but the good news is that I’ve already been thinking about revamping my web presence, and this is a push to do something about it.
link to ‘Twitter accepts buyout, giving Elon Musk total control of the company - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter in talks with Musk over bid to buy platform, according to reports : NPR'
Yet another reason to revisit my social media presence.
link to ‘Twitter in talks with Musk over bid to buy platform, according to reports : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky's voter guide for the 2022 primary elections – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Primaries are coming up! Time to do your homework!
link to ‘Kentucky’s voter guide for the 2022 primary elections – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Best bookstore in Lexington, KY bracket: Elite Eight | Lexington Herald Leader'
I have long supported Joseph-Beth, but this is giving me ideas for other bookstores to try!
link to ‘Best bookstore in Lexington, KY bracket: Elite Eight | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'McConnell and McCarthy’s Jan. 6 Fury at Trump Faded by February - The New York Times'
Disappointing that G.O.P. leaders so quickly did an about face. January 6th was a terrible event, and it’s cynical and irresponsible to pretend anything otherwise.
link to ‘McConnell and McCarthy’s Jan. 6 Fury at Trump Faded by February - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gorton unveils $460 million Lexington budget | Lexington Herald Leader'
Most of this budget sounds great, but why are we budgeting for 75 more ALPRs when we haven’t even finished the trial of the current ones yet? Not to mention that the trial is unlikely to evaluate ethics, only “effectiveness.”
link to ‘Gorton unveils $460 million Lexington budget | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Gab CEO Ironically Pines For Net Neutrality | Techdirt'
Never thought to connect Gab back to net neutrality; interesting reflection here.
link to ‘Gab CEO Ironically Pines For Net Neutrality | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New Flock security cameras being installed in Lexington by end of May | Lexington Herald Leader'
There are a few yellow flags in this article for me. Quick and efficient sounds good, but are those the most important values in policing? What values do they stand in tension with? It’s great that there are policies against using a ALPR database for personal reasons, but these policies regularly get violated. No, these aren’t videosurveillance cameras, but that doesn’t make them harmless.
link to ‘New Flock security cameras being installed in Lexington by end of May | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington gets $2.9 million for two shared use trails | Lexington Herald Leader'
Hooray for additional bike infrastructure!
link to ‘Lexington gets $2.9 million for two shared use trails | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'KY lawmakers reverse vote, give politicians control of libraries | Lexington Herald Leader'
Grumpy about this this morning.
link to ‘KY lawmakers reverse vote, give politicians control of libraries | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump as a Modern-Day Party Boss: Hoarding Cash and Doling Out Favors - The New York Times'
Very interesting read. I have never been a Republican, but I frequently voted GOP prior to 2016. Because my personal political views have shifted since then, it’s hard to say whether I would vote for a GOP that throws off the Trump baggage, but I do hope such a party one day re-emerges. I may not agree with it, but we certainly need it.
link to ‘Trump as a Modern-Day Party Boss: Hoarding Cash and Doling Out Favors - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter’s upcoming edit feature may keep track of tweet history - The Verge'
Bad faith edits were the main reason why I’ve never jumped on the “edit button” train, so I think this is a good way to handle this.
link to ‘Twitter’s upcoming edit feature may keep track of tweet history - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marine Le Pen Victory Would Threaten European Alliances'
Interesting read on potential stakes of France’s presidential election.
link to ‘Marine Le Pen Victory Would Threaten European Alliances’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'When Vladimir Putin joined George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas : NPR'
Good article on our past optimism for Putin.
link to ‘When Vladimir Putin joined George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Of ‘Algospeak’ and the Crudeness of Automated Moderation | by Clive Thompson | Apr, 2022 | OneZero'
Fascinated by this article for so many reasons. First, it’s a great example of meaningful practices in online spaces; second, it brings it back to the need for more, smaller platforms.
link to ‘Of ‘Algospeak’ and the Crudeness of Automated Moderation | by Clive Thompson | Apr, 2022 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt'
I have only been reading Techdirt for a short amount of time, but I increasingly appreciate Masnick’s perspectives on issues like this.
link to ‘Elon Musk Demonstrates How Little He Understands About Content Moderation | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texts Show Mike Lee Released ‘the Kraken’ and Tried to Give Trump a Smarter Coup Plan'
Worrying stuff out of Utah.
link to ‘Texts Show Mike Lee Released ‘the Kraken’ and Tried to Give Trump a Smarter Coup Plan’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times'
Content moderation is a necessity, and Musk’s take here is wildly irresponsible.
link to ‘Elon Musk, After Toying With Twitter, Now Wants It All - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'It’s Still Stupidly, Ridiculously Difficult To Buy A ‘Dumb’ TV | Techdirt'
Losing dumb TVs is not an acceptable option.
link to ‘It’s Still Stupidly, Ridiculously Difficult To Buy A ‘Dumb’ TV | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War'
This story just keeps getting worse.
link to ‘Twitter and Elon Musk Are Now at War’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Brittney Griner's detention in Russia: What it says about basketball's pay gap : NPR'
Seems to me that folks truly concerned about the integrity of women’s sports would have more to say about this.
link to ‘Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia: What it says about basketball’s pay gap : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Far-Right Is Doxxing School Officials They Think Are “Groomers”'
This matches rhetoric I’m reading while doing research on Gab. We need respectable conservative movements in the U.S., but our contemporary mainstream right is flirting with these ideas instead of denouncing them. It’s troubling
link to ‘The Far-Right Is Doxxing School Officials They Think Are “Groomers”’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Présidentielle 2022 : le ralliement d'Eric Zemmour gêne la stratégie de camouflage de Marine Le Pen'
Faut pas oublier ces liens quand-même.
[link to ‘Présidentielle 2022 : le ralliement d’Eric Zemmour gêne la stratégie de camouflage de Marine Le Pen’](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/l-edito-politique/presidentielle-2022-le-ralliement-d-eric-zemmour-gene-la-strategie-de-camouflage-de-marine-le-pen_5052049.html
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'House G.O.P. Kills Bid to Honor Pioneering Black Judge - The New York Times'
Litmus tests like this are making me even more worried about the future.
link to ‘House G.O.P. Kills Bid to Honor Pioneering Black Judge - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'KY libraries worried by bill giving politicians control over them | Lexington Herald Leader'
Wish that I’d been paying better attention to this legislation. Libraries are pillars of our communities and ought to retain partisan independence.
link to ‘KY libraries worried by bill giving politicians control over them | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Des crimes de guerre auraient aussi été commis par des soldats ukrainiens - rts.ch - Monde'
Faut pas transformer l’Ukraine un héros irréprochable.
link to ‘Des crimes de guerre auraient aussi été commis par des soldats ukrainiens - rts.ch - Monde’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'GOP Social Media Experiments Fail (In Part) Because They Break The Troll/Amplification Cycle | Techdirt'
Insightful piece on trolling and feeding trolls.
link to ‘GOP Social Media Experiments Fail (In Part) Because They Break The Troll/Amplification Cycle | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Roger Stone Claims He’s Being ‘Censored’ on Trump’s Truth Social'
All platforms moderate content, most content moderation isn’t censorship.
link to ‘Roger Stone Claims He’s Being ‘Censored’ on Trump’s Truth Social’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why You Should Buy the Dumbest TV You Can Find'
If I can help it, I will never buy a smart TV. I appreciate the suggestion to consider a monitor as a dumb TV.
link to ‘Why You Should Buy the Dumbest TV You Can Find’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Cops Tried Playing Disney Music to Censor a Video'
Weaponization of copyright filters is awful, and it’s not even the worst thing about this story.
link to ‘Cops Tried Playing Disney Music to Censor a Video’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Extremist Republicans like Ammon Bundy face opposition from moderates : NPR'
Keeping an eye on France’s elections in April and then Idaho’s in May, I guess.
link to ‘Extremist Republicans like Ammon Bundy face opposition from moderates : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet - The New York Times'
Frustrating to see steps that feel like progress seem to shore up the tech giants I hoped were being kept in check.
link to ‘How You’re Still Being Tracked on the Internet - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'LGBTQ biases led to uproar after board message, KY teacher says | Lexington Herald Leader'
Worries about this picking up. General Assembly took steps in a bad direction this session, but they could go further next time.
link to ‘LGBTQ biases led to uproar after board message, KY teacher says | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marjorie Taylor Greene: If You Vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson, You Must Like Pedophiles'
GOP needs to do more about MTG.
link to ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene: If You Vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson, You Must Like Pedophiles’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia’s Bucha “Facts” Versus the Evidence - bellingcat'
Not that I was inclined to believe Russian cries of fake news anyway, but I still appreciate Bellingcat on the case.
link to ‘Russia’s Bucha “Facts” Versus the Evidence - bellingcat’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The U.S. Has Its Own Agenda Against Russia'
This kind of article is why I read The Intercept—to give me fresh perspectives on important issues.
link to ‘The U.S. Has Its Own Agenda Against Russia’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google Docs will start nudging some users to write less dumbly - The Verge'
Nooooo thank you. Don’t like this about Grammarly, don’t like this about Word, won’t like this about Google Docs. I am very skeptical of giving algorithms authority over style.
link to ‘Google Docs will start nudging some users to write less dumbly - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics | Techdirt'
TikTok should not be protected from criticism, but it should not be subjected to this garbage either.
link to ‘Facebook-Hired PR Firm Coordinated Anti-TikTok Campaign To Spread Bogus Moral Panics | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Houston area student wins $90,000 settlement after being bullied by teacher for not standing for Pledge of Allegiance'
Indefensible for a student to be treated this way. The settlement is good news, but I still worry about the larger issue. Thinking about how to teach my kid about the Pledge and the right not to participate.
link to ‘Houston area student wins $90,000 settlement after being bullied by teacher for not standing for Pledge of Allegiance’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'LGBTQ advocates raise alarm against trans attacks in Ky. legislature – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
I have spent a few hours this week reading violently anti-trans posts as part of a research project. My patience for queerphobic dog whistles disguised as feigned concerns about girls’ sports is at zero. So disappointed in the Kentucky legislature.
link to ‘LGBTQ advocates raise alarm against trans attacks in Ky. legislature – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why Moderating Content Actually Does More To Support The Principles Of Free Speech | Techdirt'
Really appreciate Masnick’s perspective here—especially the point that EVERYONE believes in content moderation even if there are disagreements on how to do it. It’s irresponsible for so many (on the right) to describe moderation as censorship.
link to ‘Why Moderating Content Actually Does More To Support The Principles Of Free Speech | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK for posting ‘offensive’ tweet - The Verge'
Very uncomfortable with this. Tweet wasn’t great, but not sure if it’s criminal. I’m sympathetic to the idea that we underpolice social media, but this is a fantastic example of why so many (including me) are worried about attempts to police it more.
link to ‘Twitter user sentenced to 150 hours of community service in UK for posting ‘offensive’ tweet - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Nokia Busted Helping Russia’s FSB Spy On Citizens, Activists, Journalists | Techdirt'
Do not be fooled by the headline, the article’s best contribution is its indictment of U.S. politicians and companies for their complicity in this sort of thing.
link to ‘Nokia Busted Helping Russia’s FSB Spy On Citizens, Activists, Journalists | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Women are splitting off from Reddit’s preppers sub.'
This is a fascinating article on prepper communities on reddit. Great example of the importance of a gender lens.
link to ‘Women are splitting off from Reddit’s preppers sub.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google Ordered Translators to Replace References to Ukraine “War”'
Speaking of the non-neutrality of platforms… Granted, Google has a difficult line to walk here, but this is still disappointing.
link to ‘Google Ordered Translators to Replace References to Ukraine “War”’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times'
Glad to see reporting on Rumble, but disappointed to see uncritical repeating of claims about “free speech,” “neutrality,” and “censorship.” There are no neutral platforms, and content moderation is the real key idea here.
link to ‘Rumble, the Right’s Go-To Video Site, Has Much Bigger Ambitions - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Stop Invasive Remote Proctoring: Pass California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Seems to me that not using proctoring software is the best response to these concerns, but glad to see the EFF sponsoring efforts to regulate its inevitable use.
link to ‘Stop Invasive Remote Proctoring: Pass California’s Student Test Taker Privacy Protection Act | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pride flag displayed at Lexington KY man’s house gets burned | Lexington Herald Leader'
I bike past this house and its flags every day; seeing them is always a boost. How upsetting that people would want to burn one.
link to ‘Pride flag displayed at Lexington KY man’s house gets burned | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt'
I have been waiting for days to see what Techdirt would have to say on this, and it doesn’t disappoint.
link to ‘The ‘Culture Of Free Speech’ Includes Criticism Of Others’ Speech; Get Over It | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'So how do Russian cosmonauts feel about Russia’s war on Ukraine? | Ars Technica'
This article is the most helpful thing I’ve seen on the cosmonauts’ uniform choice so far.
link to ‘So how do Russian cosmonauts feel about Russia’s war on Ukraine? | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'To Make Social Media Work Better, Make It Fail Better | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
This idea increasingly resonates with me.
link to ‘To Make Social Media Work Better, Make It Fail Better | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Hacked News Channel and Deepfake of Zelenskyy Surrendering Is Causing Chaos Online'
Oh good, our fears about deepfakes are coming true.
link to ‘Hacked News Channel and Deepfake of Zelenskyy Surrendering Is Causing Chaos Online’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Now That White Musicians Are Getting Sued For Copyright, Lawyers Say Copyright Needs To Change | Techdirt'
Intellectual property is a social justice issue.
link to ‘Now That White Musicians Are Getting Sued For Copyright, Lawyers Say Copyright Needs To Change | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Kentucky lawmakers advance bill to resettle war refugees | Lexington Herald Leader'
I do not always have praise for the local Republican supermajority, but I’m glad to see this goes beyond Ukraine to provide support for all kinds of refugees. Tentative optimism here.
link to ‘Kentucky lawmakers advance bill to resettle war refugees | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Yemen Crisis Has Only Worsened, Despite Biden Pledge'
Yemen has been on my mind a lot since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but mostly because I’m belatedly realizing I haven’t been paying attention. It’s not that Ukraine doesn’t deserve our attention, it’s that Yemen has long deserved just as much. There, we’re the ones complicit in civilian deaths, and we need to own up to that.
link to ‘Yemen Crisis Has Only Worsened, Despite Biden Pledge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation | Techdirt'
I missed most of this yesterday, but Masnick sums up my thoughts so much better than I could.
link to ‘Performative Conservatives Are Mad That A Search Engine Wants To Downrank Disinformation | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'U.S. Condemns Russian Bombing Of Hospital As Horrific Act That Any World Power Could Theoretically Commit'
The Onion speaks uncomfortable truth. Americans must hold Putin accountable, but we meed to turn our attention inward, too.
link to ‘U.S. Condemns Russian Bombing Of Hospital As Horrific Act That Any World Power Could Theoretically Commit’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How KONY 2012 Trained the Audience— and YouTube — to Love Reactionary Media | by Jamie Cohen | Mar, 2022 | OneZero'
KONY 2012 has been on my mind a lot lately, and this is a good read. It doesn’t bring up why I’ve had it on the mind, though. I’m afraid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could turn into a sequel of sorts: Something important and meaningful that people glom onto because they see something oversimplified on social media.
link to ‘How KONY 2012 Trained the Audience— and YouTube — to Love Reactionary Media | by Jamie Cohen | Mar, 2022 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Millions of Leftists Are Reposting Kremlin Misinformation by Mistake'
Interesting if disconcerting story. The idea of whataboutism as misinformation is particularly disturbing, and it’s important to remember that misinformation is a non-partisan phenomenon (even if the GOP is particularly keen on it). The worst part from a personal angle is how this relates to my own struggling to balance calling out the invasion of Ukraine with knowing that I haven’t been as attentive to other conflicts that deserve my brainspace.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ky. lawmaker apologizes for comments about Jewish women during abortion debate | Lexington Herald Leader'
Textbook example of why it is never enough to say you didn’t mean any harm. This is shameful and gross.
link to ‘Ky. lawmaker apologizes for comments about Jewish women during abortion debate | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia Can Now Jail People for 15 Years for Tweeting About the War on Ukraine'
On one hand, this is actual social media censorship, not what bad actors in the U.S. complain about. On the other, it is a reminder that even the best intentioned laws against misinformation, etc. could have unintended effects. We need to tread carefully when figuring out legal responses to social media problems.
link to ‘Russia Can Now Jail People for 15 Years for Tweeting About the War on Ukraine’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Religious Education at BYU: An Open Letter to the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities | By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog'
Lots of thoughts about this. As someone with an education PhD who teaches and researches outside traditionally education topics, I want to emphasize that the prevalence of education PhDs is a symptom, not the actual problem. In my teaching and research outside my home discipline, I work hard to learn the content and communities that I’m branching into. The disdain for those content and communities at BYU Religious Education is the real problem here and therefore what I’m really worried about.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ukraine’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Battalion Is Greasing Bullets in Pig Fat for Russia’s Muslim Soldiers'
We can support Ukraine generally and still be concerned about the integration of the far-right into their armed forces.
link to ‘Ukraine’s ‘Neo-Nazi’ Battalion Is Greasing Bullets in Pig Fat for Russia’s Muslim Soldiers’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Critics Call Out ‘Racist’ Western Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine'
So very gross. What’s happening in Ukraine is terrible, but terrible things are happening all over the world, and we shouldn’t make Ukraine more terrible out of some kind of chauvinism.
link to ‘Critics Call Out ‘Racist’ Western Coverage of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Lexington KY peace vigil for Ukraine set for Wednesday | Lexington Herald Leader'
Proud of Lexington for hosting this. Also wondering if I should check the Lexington groups on Gab to see if the local far-right is cranky about it.
link to ‘Lexington KY peace vigil for Ukraine set for Wednesday | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'House Introduces Tax Bill that Would Devastate Kentucky’s Budget for a Giveaway to the Wealthy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy'
Tremendously worrying stuff. Taxes are the price we pay for democratic society.
link to ‘House Introduces Tax Bill that Would Devastate Kentucky’s Budget for a Giveaway to the Wealthy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying To Save Them'
Because the Web feels new to us, it’s easy to forget how important it is to preserve it for the future.
link to ‘Ukrainian Websites Are Going Dark. Archivists Are Trying To Save Them’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Afghans Who Relocated to Ukraine Are Reliving Their Worst Nightmare'
Oh no no no. This hadn’t crossed my mind as a possibility, but how terrible.
link to ‘Afghans Who Relocated to Ukraine Are Reliving Their Worst Nightmare’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia's still eligible for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest : NPR'
Eurovision is not supposed to be political, but it always sneaks in. My money is on a lot of sympathy votes for Ukraine’s entry, and a very low score for Russia.
link to ‘Russia’s still eligible for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How liberal Russians are reacting to Putin’s war with Ukraine.'
Lots of important reminders in here. I also feel ashamed that I have not protested my country’s wars in the way these Russians are doing so now.
link to ‘How liberal Russians are reacting to Putin’s war with Ukraine.’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Openly Advocating Violence Against Trans People'
Greene is repeatedly awful, and the GOP’s refusal to do anything substantial about it is telling.
link to ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Openly Advocating Violence Against Trans People’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Man Dreams Of More Equal America That Just Sort Of Happens On Its Own'
Hits too close to home for me. I have work to do.
link to ‘Man Dreams Of More Equal America That Just Sort Of Happens On Its Own’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader'
Amazon already has too big a footprint here. Don’t feel great about this.
link to ‘KY lawmakers advance data center tax incentives to woo tech giants | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Fox News Hosts Keep Taking Putin’s Side in the War on Ukraine'
Putin has outwitted every U.S. President since W, not necessarily because he’s smarter, but because he doesn’t operate with the same constraints U.S. presidents do. To blame this on Biden is moronic. We obviously shouldn’t let this episode of the culture war overshadow the more important crisis happening in Ukraine itself, but this appropriation of the crisis really worries me in the context of U.S. politics. These stances are largely indefensible.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Trump Thinks Putin Is a ‘Genius’ for Invading Ukraine'
There is no denying that Putin is smart and strategic, but expressing awe instead of concern is typically Trump in its idiocy.
link to ‘Trump Thinks Putin Is a ‘Genius’ for Invading Ukraine’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'QAnon Isn’t Dead, It’s Growing'
Worrying stuff here. Right-wing media consumption appears to be the big predictor for QAnon beliefs.
link to ‘QAnon Isn’t Dead, It’s Growing’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Peloton Outage Prevents Customers From Using $2,500 Exercise Bikes | Techdirt'
Happy that my much cheaper bike does not rely on servers to function properly.
link to ‘Peloton Outage Prevents Customers From Using $2,500 Exercise Bikes | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Texas Is Going to Start Investigating Parents of Trans Kids for Child Abuse'
Kentucky has taken some bad steps in this direction lately, but this is horrific.
link to ‘Texas Is Going to Start Investigating Parents of Trans Kids for Child Abuse’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Internet Is Debunking Russian War Propaganda in Real Time'
Bellingcat does good work. It gives me hope to see people using the internet to fight back against disinformation spread by the internet, but I’m also glad the article touches on the dangers involved.
link to ‘The Internet Is Debunking Russian War Propaganda in Real Time’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This Is the ‘Hacking’ Investigation Into Journalist Who Clicked ‘View Source’ on Government Website'
The students in my fundamentals of computers class have repeatedly heard me bring up this story to explain that technology is never just technical.
link to ‘This Is the ‘Hacking’ Investigation Into Journalist Who Clicked ‘View Source’ on Government Website’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Comedian Bill Bailey reimagines the Doctor Who theme as Belgian jazz | Boing Boing'
This has been around long enough that I used to show it to my FREN 102 students, but very glad to see it cross my radar again via Boing Boing. The whole show is fantastic, but this bet might be the best. Great, nerdy deployment of mostly-right French.
[link to ‘Comedian Bill Bailey reimagines the Doctor Who theme as Belgian jazz | Boing Boing’](https://boingboing.net/2022/02/22/comedian-bill-bailey-reimagines-the-doctor-who-theme-as-belgian-jazz.html?utm_source=rss
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'QAnon Celebrity Ron Watkins Wrote a Terrible Poem to ‘Prove’ He’s Not Q'
Can we please refrain from electing the alleged Q to Congress?
link to ‘QAnon Celebrity Ron Watkins Wrote a Terrible Poem to ‘Prove’ He’s Not Q’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas - The New York Times'
A long but important read.
link to ‘The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Russia's ‘Idiotic’ Disinformation Campaign Could Still Lead to War in Ukraine'
This is terrifying on so many levels. Besides the possibility of war, the thing I’m most spooked by is the sheer cynicism of Russian efforts here. It doesn’t matter how bad the disinformation is if you can count on enough people to believe it. Trumpian, but turned up to 14.
link to ‘Russia’s ‘Idiotic’ Disinformation Campaign Could Still Lead to War in Ukraine’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Please Delete Your Recordings: Inside a Police Conference'
Lexington just installed plate readers on a trial basis, so this hits particularly hard right now. It’s scary and it needs to stop.
link to ‘Please Delete Your Recordings: Inside a Police Conference’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'This journalist’s Otter.ai scare is a reminder that cloud transcription isn’t completely private - The Verge'
Doing transcription yourself sucks. It’s long and tedious, and the final product never feels worth all the effort you put into it. For all that, though, this is exactly why services like Otter have never sat well with me.
link to ‘This journalist’s Otter.ai scare is a reminder that cloud transcription isn’t completely private - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Talking to Art Spiegelman As the Latest ‘Maus’ Fight Erupts'
Quite enjoyed this read. Appreciated Spiegelman’s take that Maus got pushback because there’s not a satisfying ending. It’s true of Maus, but maybe that’s a feature, not a bug. Hat tip to Boing Boing for pointing me to this.
link to ‘Talking to Art Spiegelman As the Latest ‘Maus’ Fight Erupts’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported - IEEE Spectrum'
This story is so, so much to take in. I saw it from the Massachusetts Pirate Party with a comment about implants needing to be open sourced. I agree, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
link to ‘Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported - IEEE Spectrum’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Ky. Republicans advance another bill banning trans girls from girls sports – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Disappointed to see more legislation like this under consideration.
link to ‘Ky. Republicans advance another bill banning trans girls from girls sports – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Proposed tax break for private airplanes stalls in KY House | Lexington Herald Leader'
Glad to hear this—and glad my state rep seems to me a voice of reason here.
link to ‘Proposed tax break for private airplanes stalls in KY House | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'What does it cost Lexington KY drivers to wait in traffic? | Lexington Herald Leader'
Yes for more transportation funding, but not if it’s all going to cars.
link to ‘What does it cost Lexington KY drivers to wait in traffic? | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Missouri's Governor Still Insists Reporter Is A Hacker, Even As Prosecutors Decline To Press Charges | Techdirt'
This continues to be a dumb and worrying story.
link to ‘Missouri’s Governor Still Insists Reporter Is A Hacker, Even As Prosecutors Decline To Press Charges | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Parents say daughters humiliated over Scott school dress code | Lexington Herald Leader'
Why are dress codes so often so gross?
link to ‘Parents say daughters humiliated over Scott school dress code | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Declassified Documents Shows The CIA Is Using A 1981 Executive Order To Engage In Domestic Surveillance | Techdirt'
Surveillance is a bigger problem than we think.
link to ‘Declassified Documents Shows The CIA Is Using A 1981 Executive Order To Engage In Domestic Surveillance | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'We Need Answers About the CIA’s Mass Surveillance | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
This is unjustifiable.
link to ‘We Need Answers About the CIA’s Mass Surveillance | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Cop Trainer Encouraging Cops To Run Facial Recognition Searches On People During Traffic Stops | Techdirt'
Ugh ugh ugh.
link to ‘Cop Trainer Encouraging Cops To Run Facial Recognition Searches On People During Traffic Stops | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Penguin Random House Demands Removal Of Maus From Digital Library Because The Book Is Popular Again | Techdirt'
The first line is a powerful one. Libraries ought to be a constant reference point (and beneficiary) when liberalizing IP.
link to ‘Penguin Random House Demands Removal Of Maus From Digital Library Because The Book Is Popular Again | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Tech Leaders Justify Project To Create Army Of AI-Controlled Bulletproof Grizzly Bears As Inevitable Part Of Progress'
But is it ed tech?
link to ‘Tech Leaders Justify Project To Create Army Of AI-Controlled Bulletproof Grizzly Bears As Inevitable Part Of Progress’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'How the Open App Markets Act wants to remake app stores - The Verge'
This would really change things up!
link to ‘How the Open App Markets Act wants to remake app stores - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Why Grammarly’s suggestions around writing about slavery miss the mark.'
I am just now learning about this and am glad for the article, but I’m not sure it hits all the deeper issues here.
link to ‘Why Grammarly’s suggestions around writing about slavery miss the mark.’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'All Options Are Not on the Table as Biden Moves Troops Closer to Ukraine - The New York Times'
This whole situation sucks.
link to ‘All Options Are Not on the Table as Biden Moves Troops Closer to Ukraine - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Ukraine Gave Up Nuclear Weapons 30 Years Ago. Today There Are Regrets. - The New York Times'
I strongly believe in nuclear disarmament, but it’s still hard not to have some sympathy for this point of view.
link to ‘Ukraine Gave Up Nuclear Weapons 30 Years Ago. Today There Are Regrets. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'House Votes For COMPETES Act, Even With Its Problems, Almost Entirely On Party Lines | Techdirt'
This is why I want a U.S. Pirate Party
link to ‘House Votes For COMPETES Act, Even With Its Problems, Almost Entirely On Party Lines | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'G.O.P. Declares Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’ - The New York Times'
Some of the scariest news I’ve read this week.
link to ‘G.O.P. Declares Jan. 6 Attack ‘Legitimate Political Discourse’ - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Air Force Taps Clearview AI to Research Face-Identifying A.R. Glasses - The New York Times'
Who thought this was a good idea???
link to ‘Air Force Taps Clearview AI to Research Face-Identifying A.R. Glasses - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'SHOP SAFE Will Stomp Out Online Sales of Used and Homemade Goods | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Intellectual property is important, but overreach is a real problem. We should be liberalizing IP, not cracking down on it.
link to ‘SHOP SAFE Will Stomp Out Online Sales of Used and Homemade Goods | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Senator Wyden: EARN IT Will Make Children Less Safe | Techdirt'
Surveillance is not going to help kids.
link to ‘Senator Wyden: EARN IT Will Make Children Less Safe | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defends Joe Rogan deal in tense company town hall - The Verge'
Even if Spotify could demonstrate it isn’t a publisher here, platforms don’t get a free pass on content. Also, podcast platforms run counter to podcasting, so Spotify’s trying to be successful there is just as troublesome as the costs it’s willing to pay to do so.
link to ‘Spotify CEO Daniel Ek defends Joe Rogan deal in tense company town hall - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The Tennessee School Board-Approved Maus | Boing Boing'
Dark but funny, and a great imitation of the original art.
[link to ‘The Tennessee School Board-Approved Maus | Boing Boing’](https://boingboing.net/2022/02/01/the-tennessee-school-board-approved-maus.html?utm_source=rss
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Lexington KY police test license plate cameras to solve crime | Lexington Herald Leader'
We should all be concerned about this. Describing this as “high tech” in the first line of the story fetishizes surveillance. It’s gross.
link to ‘Lexington KY police test license plate cameras to solve crime | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Tennessee school board bans Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust novel, Maus | Holocaust | The Guardian'
Maus is one of the most important graphic novels that has ever existed—on one of the most important subjects for our students to learn about. This is a mind-bogglingly dumb decision.
link to ‘Tennessee school board bans Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust novel, Maus | Holocaust | The Guardian’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Devin Nunes, CEO Of Trump's TRUTH Social, Confirms That 'Free Speech' Social Media Will Be HEAVILY Moderated | Techdirt'
This inconsistency is mind boggling.
link to ‘Devin Nunes, CEO Of Trump’s TRUTH Social, Confirms That ‘Free Speech’ Social Media Will Be HEAVILY Moderated | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Ky. lawmakers resurrect bill to make it illegal to insult police, boost penalties for 'rioting' – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Nope nope nope.
link to ‘Ky. lawmakers resurrect bill to make it illegal to insult police, boost penalties for ‘rioting’ – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The EU Wants Its Own DNS Resolver that Can Block 'Unlawful' Traffic * TorrentFreak'
Do not like the sound of this. Will likely bring it up when teaching DNS this semester. I’ve been reading up on it for research, and it’s hard to overstate how important DNS is.
link to ‘The EU Wants Its Own DNS Resolver that Can Block ‘Unlawful’ Traffic * TorrentFreak’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'German Police Caught Using COVID-Tracing Data To Search For Crime Witnesses | Techdirt'
Contract tracing is good, but apps for it are scary. Ugh.
link to ‘German Police Caught Using COVID-Tracing Data To Search For Crime Witnesses | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'New Bill Claims To Ban 'Surveillance Advertising,' But Doesn't Actually Do It | Techdirt'
Helpful if worrying read.
link to ‘New Bill Claims To Ban ‘Surveillance Advertising,’ But Doesn’t Actually Do It | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Fact-Checking McConnell’s Comparison of Black Turnout Rates - The New York Times'
Fact checking is always important, but especially so here.
link to ‘Fact-Checking McConnell’s Comparison of Black Turnout Rates - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Kentucky county sees COVID-19 surge tied to ball games. | Lexington Herald Leader'
Hooray for sports?
link to ‘Kentucky county sees COVID-19 surge tied to ball games. | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Sedition Prosecution Of Oath Keepers Members Shows The FBI Can Still Work Around Encryption | Techdirt'
We can prosecute criminals without weakening encryption.
link to ‘Sedition Prosecution Of Oath Keepers Members Shows The FBI Can Still Work Around Encryption | Techdirt’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Parents and child care providers of unvaccinate kids say they've hit rock bottom : NPR'
We do not value child care—including unpaid child care—in this country. It is shameful, especially considering how many of us proclaim to value children.
link to ‘Parents and child care providers of unvaccinate kids say they’ve hit rock bottom : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Dear January 6 Committee: Curb Your Appetite - Center for Democracy and Technology'
I absolutely support the work of this committee, which makes it all the more important I carefully consider the means that they are using.
[link to ‘Dear January 6 Committee: Curb Your Appetite - Center for Democracy and Technology’](https://cdt.org/insights/dear-january-6-committee-curb-your-appetite/?utm_source=rss
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Want the ‘TLDR’ on a site’s terms of service? There’s a bill for that - The Verge'
Great example of a forced acronym here.
link to ‘Want the ‘TLDR’ on a site’s terms of service? There’s a bill for that - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Lexington students oppose anti-CRT legislation at rally | Lexington Herald Leader'
Good for these students.
link to ‘Lexington students oppose anti-CRT legislation at rally | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished '20 Years Later, Guantánamo Remains a Disgraceful Stain on Our Nation. It Needs to End.'
Shut it down.
link to ‘20 Years Later, Guantánamo Remains a Disgraceful Stain on Our Nation. It Needs to End.’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Refugees Held With Djokovic in Australia Briefly in Spotlight'
A wake up call and compelling story.
link to ‘Refugees Held With Djokovic in Australia Briefly in Spotlight’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Banned from Facebook and Twitter, far right groups are still a presence online. : NPR'
Interesting read on a subject I expect to be following for a while.
link to ‘Banned from Facebook and Twitter, far right groups are still a presence online. : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Companies Donated Millions to Those Who Voted to Overturn Biden's Win - The New York Times'
Not happy about this.
link to ‘Companies Donated Millions to Those Who Voted to Overturn Biden’s Win - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'A Year Later, Jan. 6 Becomes Just Another Wedge in a Divided Nation - The New York Times'
Worried about our present—and for our future.
link to ‘A Year Later, Jan. 6 Becomes Just Another Wedge in a Divided Nation - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Ky. Senate redistricting maps boost GOP in Congress, legislature – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
I am shocked—shocked!—to find gerrymandering going on in this establishment.
link to ‘Ky. Senate redistricting maps boost GOP in Congress, legislature – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished '6 Kentucky residents have pleaded guilty over Capitol riot | Lexington Herald Leader'
A reminder of local involvement in the Capitol attack.
link to ‘6 Kentucky residents have pleaded guilty over Capitol riot | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find - The New York Times'
Podcasts are one of the last bastions of the open internet, but that evidently comes at a cost. So long as Apple and Spotify are trying to corner the podcast market, they should be moderating their content.
link to ‘Election Falsehoods Surged on Podcasts Before Capitol Riots, Researchers Find - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Republicans limit debate on first day of Ky. legislative session – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Supermajority is not enough for some folks, it seems.
link to ‘Republicans limit debate on first day of Ky. legislative session – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Trump Endorses Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Far-Right Prime Minister - The New York Times'
Ugh ugh ugh.
link to ‘Trump Endorses Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Far-Right Prime Minister - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Smartphones Are a New Tax on the Poor | WIRED'
Important and enlightening read.
link to ‘Smartphones Are a New Tax on the Poor | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Trump says his supporters weren't behind the Jan. 6 attack — but I was there : NPR'
We must not forget that day or let others redefine it.
link to ‘Trump says his supporters weren’t behind the Jan. 6 attack — but I was there : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Winnie-the-Pooh and early sound recordings enter public domain - The Verge'
Happy public domain day!
link to ‘Winnie-the-Pooh and early sound recordings enter public domain - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The governor of Missouri thinks looking at website source code is a crime - The Verge'
Stupid story gets yet stupider.
link to ‘The governor of Missouri thinks looking at website source code is a crime - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'In 2021, the Police Took a Page Out of the NSA’s Playbook: 2021 in Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Time to write some representatives. This is terrifying stuff.
link to ‘In 2021, the Police Took a Page Out of the NSA’s Playbook: 2021 in Review | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Children’s hospitals are filling nationwide amid tidal wave of omicron | Ars Technica'
So tired of this pandemic.
link to ‘Children’s hospitals are filling nationwide amid tidal wave of omicron | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Michigan’s New Congressional Maps Undo Years of Gerrymandering - The New York Times'
Some hope for defeating gerrymandering.
link to ‘Michigan’s New Congressional Maps Undo Years of Gerrymandering - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Tumblr goes overboard censoring tags on iOS to comply with Apple’s guidelines - The Verge'
There are clear cases where platforms need to be moderating more content, but let’s not forget the seemingly-well-intentioned but overreaching cases either.
link to ‘Tumblr goes overboard censoring tags on iOS to comply with Apple’s guidelines - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'TikTok sued by former content moderator for allegedly failing to protect her mental health - The Verge'
Content moderation is an awful job, and we shouldn’t forget the people doing it for us.
link to ‘TikTok sued by former content moderator for allegedly failing to protect her mental health - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Internet Archive Supports the Maryland’s Library eBook Fairness Law - Internet Archive Blogs'
Intrigued by this idea.
link to ‘Internet Archive Supports the Maryland’s Library eBook Fairness Law - Internet Archive Blogs’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Trump's 'Big Lie' endures and poses a threat to U.S. democracy : NPR'
Unhappy reading for the holidays.
link to ‘Trump’s ‘Big Lie’ endures and poses a threat to U.S. democracy : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished '‘Q’ Has Been Quiet, but QAnon Lives On - The New York Times'
Looks like QAnon is going to be around for a while. Worrying stuff.
link to ‘‘Q’ Has Been Quiet, but QAnon Lives On - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Billions in Amtrak Funding Could Modernize Aging Rail System - The New York Times'
Northeast Corridor is great, but more trains in Kentucky, please. I don’t mind waiting.
link to ‘Billions in Amtrak Funding Could Modernize Aging Rail System - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Kentucky Politics Distilled – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Nearly a week later, this is even more heartbreaking.
link to ‘Kentucky Politics Distilled – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Boston Police Bought Spy Tech With a Pot of Money Hidden From the Public — ProPublica'
Stingrays are bad news, and so is the ability to buy them without public scrutiny.
[link to ‘Boston Police Bought Spy Tech With a Pot of Money Hidden From the Public — ProPublica’](https://www.propublica.org/article/boston-police-bought-spy-tech-with-a-pot-of-money-hidden-from-the-public
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Scientists Ask Biden to Cut U.S. Nuclear Arsenal - The New York Times'
We are not as worried about nuclear weapons as we should be.
link to ‘Scientists Ask Biden to Cut U.S. Nuclear Arsenal - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'French regulator tells Clearview AI to delete its facial recognition data - The Verge'
Vive la France ! 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
link to ‘French regulator tells Clearview AI to delete its facial recognition data - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'YouTube’s New Copyright Transparency Report Leaves a Lot Out | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Easy to forget that YouTube is functionally the only game in town… and that there are big consequences for that.
link to ‘YouTube’s New Copyright Transparency Report Leaves a Lot Out | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Link Taxes: A Bad Idea for Journalism and the Open Internet - Internet Archive Blogs'
Good read on an important subject.
link to ‘Link Taxes: A Bad Idea for Journalism and the Open Internet - Internet Archive Blogs’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Proud Boys Regroup Locally to Add to Ranks Before 2022 Midterms - The New York Times'
Very worrying. Underlines the importance of local politics.
link to ‘Proud Boys Regroup Locally to Add to Ranks Before 2022 Midterms - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Mayfield candle factory’s labor practices under scrutiny in wake of deadly tornado – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
I am glad someone is doing this reporting, and I’m even more glad it’s from here in Kentucky instead of folks from outside.
link to ‘Mayfield candle factory’s labor practices under scrutiny in wake of deadly tornado – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished '‘Sesame Street’ Was Always Political - The New York Times'
A delightful and important read.
link to ‘‘Sesame Street’ Was Always Political - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Western Kentucky tornadoes: How to help, donate money, blood | Lexington Herald Leader'
Important read for folks looking to help.
link to ‘Western Kentucky tornadoes: How to help, donate money, blood | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'At Mayfield, Ky. factory, incarcerated people among workers feared dead and injured – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Just when you thought this couldn’t get any worse.
link to ‘At Mayfield, Ky. factory, incarcerated people among workers feared dead and injured – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'How Trump and the 2020 race is weighing on Georgia Gov. Kemp in 2022 : NPR'
A sign of scary things to come. I haven’t taught my department’s information literacy class for several semesters; I hope it’s up to the task of combatting this sort of thing.
link to ‘How Trump and the 2020 race is weighing on Georgia Gov. Kemp in 2022 : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Storms, tornadoes: Western Kentucky death toll update | Lexington Herald Leader'
Heartbroken for Western Kentucky and everywhere else that’s seen destruction.
link to ‘Storms, tornadoes: Western Kentucky death toll update | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Apple’s concessions in China reportedly include a secret $275 billion deal and one odd change in Maps - The Verge'
Apple is better than many tech companies, but that doesn’t make it good.
link to ‘Apple’s concessions in China reportedly include a secret $275 billion deal and one odd change in Maps - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Further Shift Away from Income Taxes Would Worsen Inequities, Harm State's Economy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy'
The last thing we need is a more regressive taxation system.
link to ‘Further Shift Away from Income Taxes Would Worsen Inequities, Harm State’s Economy - Kentucky Center for Economic Policy’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'In Texas, Panic Over Critical Race Theory Extends to Bookshelves - The New York Times'
All very worrying.
link to ‘In Texas, Panic Over Critical Race Theory Extends to Bookshelves - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Researchers explain why they believe Facebook mishandles political ads : NPR'
Size and scale remain problems for Facebook and other social media platforms.
link to ‘Researchers explain why they believe Facebook mishandles political ads : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Report - Legal Loopholes and Data for Dollars: How Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies Are Buying Your Data from Brokers - Center for Democracy and Technology'
This report sounds terrifying. Even the Capitol rioters deserve some freedom from this kind of surveillance.
link to ‘Report - Legal Loopholes and Data for Dollars: How Law Enforcement and Intelligence Agencies Are Buying Your Data from Brokers - Center for Democracy and Technology’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Your Face Is, or Will Be, Your Boarding Pass - The New York Times'
Nope nope nope.
link to ‘Your Face Is, or Will Be, Your Boarding Pass - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Twitter reportedly suspended accounts by mistake after extremists abused new private media policy - The Verge'
Not a great look.
link to ‘Twitter reportedly suspended accounts by mistake after extremists abused new private media policy - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Emails show what happened before Missouri gov. falsely called journalist a “hacker” | Ars Technica'
This dumb story got even dumber.
link to ‘Emails show what happened before Missouri gov. falsely called journalist a “hacker” | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid — ProPublica'
Bishop roulette makes for terrible public policy.
link to ‘Utah Makes Welfare So Hard to Get, Some Feel They Must Join the LDS Church to Get Aid — ProPublica’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Twitter policy aimed at improving privacy sparks concerns over misuse : NPR'
File this under bad solutions to worse problems.
link to ‘Twitter policy aimed at improving privacy sparks concerns over misuse : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The Internet Needs Fair Rules of the Road – and Competitive Drivers | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Appreciate this argument for the need for true ISP competition alongside net neutrality.
link to ‘The Internet Needs Fair Rules of the Road – and Competitive Drivers | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'KU reaches compromise with Lexington tree-cutting protesters | Lexington Herald Leader'
Wish I had commuted earlier today to see this; when I biked past, there were only KU folks, no protestors. ALSO: “protesters might be abetting murderers by taking up police time” is not a good look.
link to ‘KU reaches compromise with Lexington tree-cutting protesters | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is a privacy nightmare - The Verge'
Takes some real self-confidence to describe an always-on camera as a feature, not a nightmarish bug.
link to ‘Qualcomm’s new always-on smartphone camera is a privacy nightmare - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Podcast Episode: Who Should Control Online Speech? | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Such a good conversation on such an important topic.
link to ‘Podcast Episode: Who Should Control Online Speech? | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Ky. lawmakers plan to quickly pass redistricting maps – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Dreading this whole process.
link to ‘Ky. lawmakers plan to quickly pass redistricting maps – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Meta ordered to sell Giphy by UK regulator - The Verge'
I had completely forgotten that Meta owned Giphy.
link to ‘Meta ordered to sell Giphy by UK regulator - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Fayette schools considers spending $440,00 for outside drivers | Lexington Herald Leader'
School buses are the most common form of public transit around here, and we still can’t do that right.
link to ‘Fayette schools considers spending $440,00 for outside drivers | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'How Steve Bannon Has Exploited Google Ads to Monetize Extremism — ProPublica'
Another reason to be wary of automated ad exchanges.
[link to ‘How Steve Bannon Has Exploited Google Ads to Monetize Extremism — ProPublica’](https://www.propublica.org/article/how-steve-bannon-has-exploited-google-ads-to-monetize-extremism
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Pluralistic: 28 Nov 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
Intellectual property can be a human rights issue.
[link to ‘Pluralistic: 28 Nov 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow’](https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/28/somos-cuba/
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'In Kentucky, the ‘Lost Cause’ lingers as a new myth takes hold | Lexington Herald Leader'
Compelling article on histories we’ve made and the ones we are now making.
link to ‘In Kentucky, the ‘Lost Cause’ lingers as a new myth takes hold | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'How will KY spend its $4.6B in infrastructure bill funds? | Lexington Herald Leader'
Helpful read on infrastructure money coming to Kentucky.
link to ‘How will KY spend its $4.6B in infrastructure bill funds? | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Reporter’s notebook: How to be a kinder consumer this holiday season – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Lots to think about here.
link to ‘Reporter’s notebook: How to be a kinder consumer this holiday season – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for New England's Native American tribes : NPR'
Humbling read today.
link to ‘Thanksgiving is a day of mourning for New England’s Native American tribes : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Podcast Episode: The Revolution Will Be Open Source | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Very interested in the idea of making contributions to open source software tax deductible.
link to ‘Podcast Episode: The Revolution Will Be Open Source | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Security Researcher Finds Facebook App Tracking iPhone Movements'
Accelerometer data can be used for invasive tracking, and Facebook seems to be doing so. This is truly scary stuff.
link to ‘Security Researcher Finds Facebook App Tracking iPhone Movements’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'The Amazon Privacy Nightmare. “What you search for, what you buy… | by Micah Sifry | Nov, 2021 | OneZero'
Very scary stuff here.
link to ‘The Amazon Privacy Nightmare. “What you search for, what you buy… | by Micah Sifry | Nov, 2021 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Clearview AI does well in another round of facial recognition accuracy tests. - The New York Times'
The problem with facial recognition isn’t (just) accuracy—it’s the underlying values of such a project.
link to ‘Clearview AI does well in another round of facial recognition accuracy tests. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'For Rules in Technology, the Challenge is to Balance Code and Law - The New York Times'
Glad to see Lessig expressing caution here.
link to ‘For Rules in Technology, the Challenge is to Balance Code and Law - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Police Aerial Surveillance Endangers Our Ability to Protest | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Surveillance remains scary.
link to ‘Police Aerial Surveillance Endangers Our Ability to Protest | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Rand Paul to challenge Biden’s Saudi arms sale | Lexington Herald Leader'
The thing about Rand Paul is that sometimes he gets things very right, even though he so often gets things so wrong.
link to ‘Rand Paul to challenge Biden’s Saudi arms sale | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Predictive analytics in child welfare raise concerns - Youth Today'
We need data to make decisions, but predictive analytics tend to give me the heebie jeebies.
link to ‘Predictive analytics in child welfare raise concerns - Youth Today’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Lexington KY gets ‘perfect score’ for LGBTQ protections | Lexington Herald Leader'
Good news for Lexington! 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈
link to ‘Lexington KY gets ‘perfect score’ for LGBTQ protections | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Stop Warrantless Car Spying by Police'
Something else to write representatives about.
link to ‘Bipartisan Bill Seeks to Stop Warrantless Car Spying by Police’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'BTS fan accounts targeted with fake copyright takedowns - The Verge'
Weaponized copyright enforcement is awful.
link to ‘BTS fan accounts targeted with fake copyright takedowns - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just finished 'Podcast Episode: What Police Get When They Get Your Phone | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Time to write some representatives. This is scary stuff.
link to ‘Podcast Episode: What Police Get When They Get Your Phone | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'In Moscow’s Technological Advances, a ‘Double-Edged Sword’ - The New York Times'
Facial recognition is worrying.
link to ‘In Moscow’s Technological Advances, a ‘Double-Edged Sword’ - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Internet-Connected Products: Ever-Advancing, Ever-Creepier | by Stephen Moore | Nov, 2021 | OneZero'
Good take on the privacy issues involved with modern gift-giving.
link to ‘Internet-Connected Products: Ever-Advancing, Ever-Creepier | by Stephen Moore | Nov, 2021 | OneZero’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'After Facebook Leaks, Here Is What Should Come Next | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Always appreciate the EFF’s perspective.
link to ‘After Facebook Leaks, Here Is What Should Come Next | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'What happened when Facebook asked users what content was good or bad for the world.'
Interesting read.
link to ‘What happened when Facebook asked users what content was good or bad for the world.’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'The infrastructure bill could be a lifeline for students without internet : NPR'
Internet is a question of infrastructure, and infrastructure is a question of justice.
link to ‘The infrastructure bill could be a lifeline for students without internet : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'How sexual assault survivors are harmed by the Texas abortion law : Shots - Health News : NPR'
So devastating.
link to ‘How sexual assault survivors are harmed by the Texas abortion law : Shots - Health News : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'How Republicans Have an Edge in the Emerging 2022 Congressional Maps - The New York Times'
Gerrymandering is gross and wrong, no matter who’s doing it.
link to ‘How Republicans Have an Edge in the Emerging 2022 Congressional Maps - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'A new monument in Frankfort will honor the Kentuckians who died from COVID-19 – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville'
Beautiful gesture and a perfect name for it.
link to ‘A new monument in Frankfort will honor the Kentuckians who died from COVID-19 – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Pluralistic: 14 Nov 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
Doctorow has some good thoughts on surveillance capitalism here.
link to ‘Pluralistic: 14 Nov 2021 – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Vizio’s profit on ads, subscriptions, and data is double the money it makes selling TVs - The Verge'
Terrifying stuff. I know “Orwellian” gets overused these days, but TVs that watch us are straight out of 1984.
link to ‘Vizio’s profit on ads, subscriptions, and data is double the money it makes selling TVs - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Why a wealth tax for people like Elon Musk is so hard to pull off : NPR'
Interesting and helpful read.
link to ‘Why a wealth tax for people like Elon Musk is so hard to pull off : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'UK students flock to see Sister Cindy's 'slut shaming show' | News | kykernel.com'
So very gross.
link to ‘UK students flock to see Sister Cindy’s ‘slut shaming show’ | News | kykernel.com’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Twenty-first century swashbucklers: The rise of ethical media piracy | Opinion | kykernel.com'
Got some future Pirate Party supporters here at UK.
link to ‘Twenty-first century swashbucklers: The rise of ethical media piracy | Opinion | kykernel.com’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'EFF to Supreme Court: Warrantless 24-Hour Video Surveillance Outside Homes Violates Fourth Amendment | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Surveillance is scary.
link to ‘EFF to Supreme Court: Warrantless 24-Hour Video Surveillance Outside Homes Violates Fourth Amendment | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Apple Has Listened And Will Retract Some Harmful Phone-Scanning'
Good progress but need more.
link to ‘Apple Has Listened And Will Retract Some Harmful Phone-Scanning’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Menace, as a Political Tool, Enters the Republican Mainstream - The New York Times'
Truly frightening.
link to ‘Menace, as a Political Tool, Enters the Republican Mainstream - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read '24 UK employees placed on leave for breaking COVID policy | Lexington Herald Leader'
Glad local reporters are looking into this; when the measures were announced, I was wondering what responses would be.
link to ‘24 UK employees placed on leave for breaking COVID policy | Lexington Herald Leader’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'The Secret to a Better Internet? Post Less, Chat More. - The New York Times'
Interesting argument. I will say that having a running Keybase chat with distant friends has been terribly helpful during the pandemic.
link to ‘The Secret to a Better Internet? Post Less, Chat More. - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Sen. Josh Hawley claims without evidence that liberals are attacking masculinity : NPR'
Du Mez is the perfect person to respond to this. Fwiw, Gab is giving some serious Jesus & John Wayne vibes right now, for all the same reasons Hawley is.
link to ‘Sen. Josh Hawley claims without evidence that liberals are attacking masculinity : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Rep. Gosar anime video highlights ties to the online right - The Verge'
The whole point of far right meme culture is plausible deniability. Telling people to relax and that it’s just a joke is not only ridiculous but further plays into the parallels.
link to ‘Rep. Gosar anime video highlights ties to the online right - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Data Broker Veraset Gave Bulk Device-Level GPS Data to DC Government | Electronic Frontier Foundation'
Location data harvesting is scary stuff.
link to ‘Data Broker Veraset Gave Bulk Device-Level GPS Data to DC Government | Electronic Frontier Foundation’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'U.S. Holocaust Museum Says China ‘May Be Committing Genocide’ Against Uyghurs - The New York Times'
We have a magnet from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum reminding us (and everyone else who walks past our fridge) to keep an eye out for modern day hate, injustice, and genocide.
link to ‘U.S. Holocaust Museum Says China ‘May Be Committing Genocide’ Against Uyghurs - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Supreme Court conservatives are skeptical on spiritual advisers in death chamber : NPR'
Religious freedom only counts as such when it’s applied across the board and not just for conservative talking points.
link to ‘Supreme Court conservatives are skeptical on spiritual advisers in death chamber : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'These Parents Built a School App. Then the City Called the Cops | WIRED'
Heck of a story.
link to ‘These Parents Built a School App. Then the City Called the Cops | WIRED’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'In Florida, a Firestorm Over Silenced University Professors Grows - The New York Times'
So very dumb.
link to ‘In Florida, a Firestorm Over Silenced University Professors Grows - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'ICO to step in after schools use facial recognition to speed up lunch queue | Facial recognition | The Guardian'
Why are people still touting facial recognition as a convenience?
link to ‘ICO to step in after schools use facial recognition to speed up lunch queue | Facial recognition | The Guardian’
🔗 linkblog: just read '7-Eleven breached customer privacy by collecting facial imagery without consent | ZDNet'
We ought to be talking more about biometric data.
link to ‘7-Eleven breached customer privacy by collecting facial imagery without consent | ZDNet’
🔗 linkblog: just read '‘Sideloading is a cyber criminal’s best friend,’ according to Apple’s software chief - The Verge'
By this logic, macOS is malware’s best friend by allowing users to install software outside the App Store. It’s a dumb argument.
link to ‘‘Sideloading is a cyber criminal’s best friend,’ according to Apple’s software chief - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Texas' governor wants 'pornographic' school library books removed : NPR'
To paraphrase George Smiley, you can learn a lot about how those in power will treat people by the way they treat books.
link to ‘Texas’ governor wants ‘pornographic’ school library books removed : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Public transportation can save the world — if we let it'
Public transit forever. Lexington is considering BRT, and I’m really hoping it comes through. Would give me some more commuting options.
link to ‘Public transportation can save the world — if we let it’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case - The New York Times'
So gross.
link to ‘Florida Bars State Professors From Testifying in Voting Rights Case - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook Changes Corporate Name to Meta - The New York Times'
The weirdest part of this article to me is how you have Frances Haugen talking to the UK Parliament in one paragraph and then Nick Clegg—former deputy PM—defending “Meta” as their employee not long after.
link to ‘Facebook Changes Corporate Name to Meta - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read '#181 Absolutely Devious Lick | Reply All'
What a great episode.
link to ‘#181 Absolutely Devious Lick | Reply All’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Google and Facebook’s Ad Empires - The New York Times'
Tech companies are often ad companies, and it behooves us to remember that.
link to ‘Google and Facebook’s Ad Empires - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'How hospitals inflate bills for healthy births by labeling them 'emergencies' : Shots - Health News : NPR'
So much ugh.
link to ‘How hospitals inflate bills for healthy births by labeling them ’emergencies’ : Shots - Health News : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Viewing website HTML code is not illegal or “hacking,” prof. tells Missouri gov. | Ars Technica'
This story just gets more and more ridiculous.
link to ‘Viewing website HTML code is not illegal or “hacking,” prof. tells Missouri gov. | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Employees pleaded with Facebook to stop letting politicians bend rules | Ars Technica'
Facebook might need more moderators, but they shouldn’t be company executives…
link to ‘Employees pleaded with Facebook to stop letting politicians bend rules | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'She Is Breaking Glass Ceilings in Space, but Facing Sexism on Earth - The New York Times'
Sobering read.
link to ‘She Is Breaking Glass Ceilings in Space, but Facing Sexism on Earth - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Trump’s site Truth Social broke software rules, says copyleft group - The Verge'
Do not mess with open licensing.
link to ‘Trump’s site Truth Social broke software rules, says copyleft group - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Texas Removed an L.G.B.T.Q. Resource Page After a Candidate Complained - The New York Times'
This is frustrating and sad.
link to ‘Texas Removed an L.G.B.T.Q. Resource Page After a Candidate Complained - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Missouri governor threatens reporter who discovered state site spilling private info - The Verge'
If viewing the source code of a web page is hacking, my black hat skills just went up a thousandfold.
link to ‘Missouri governor threatens reporter who discovered state site spilling private info - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'U.S. Antigovernment Groups Are Influencing the French Far Right - The New York Times'
This is worrying. There’s a long tradition of open far right movements in France, and if the U.S has something to teach them, it should make us think twice about what’s happening here.
link to ‘U.S. Antigovernment Groups Are Influencing the French Far Right - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook whistleblower hearing: France Haugen finally got Republicans to stop yapping about anti-conservative bias.'
Interesting article. I’m particularly interested in the idea of focusing on algorithms rather than content.
link to ‘Facebook whistleblower hearing: France Haugen finally got Republicans to stop yapping about anti-conservative bias.’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Facebook’s outage likely cost the company over $60 million | Ars Technica'
A compelling reminder that social media companies make money from eyeballs pointed at screens.
link to ‘Facebook’s outage likely cost the company over $60 million | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Opinion | Don’t Let Amazon Eat the Film Industry - The New York Times'
The more pies Amazon has its fingers in, the more concerning it becomes.
link to ‘Opinion | Don’t Let Amazon Eat the Film Industry - The New York Times’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Amazon Astro Leaks Data All Over New Carpet'
Well played, The Onion. Well played.
link to ‘Amazon Astro Leaks Data All Over New Carpet’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Fairphone’s latest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year warranty - The Verge'
Really want to see Fairphone start selling in U.S.
link to ‘Fairphone’s latest sustainable smartphone comes with a five-year warranty - The Verge’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Majority of Americans support national data privacy standards: poll | TheHill'
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'
Worrying read but important one.
link to ‘Despite Arrests And Setbacks, Far-Right Proud Boys Press New Ambitions : NPR’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'IRS Reports Your Taxes Specifically Were Spent To Drone-Strike Kids'
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’
🔗 linkblog: just read 'Pentagon Acknowledges Aug. 29 Drone Strike in Afghanistan Was Tragic Mistake - The New York Times'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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.'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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.'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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'
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
first thoughts about Capitol riot
I had a friend in Michigan with whom I disagreed on a great deal but who was still an important and supportive mentor for me. On November 9, 2016, we had a very tense conversation where he told me that I would see: The candidate’s bluster might be worrying, but he wouldn’t actually act on any of it. I haven’t talked to him in a few years, but I’m wondering what’s going through his head today.
une Épiphanie de 2021 très particulière
Pour le 6 janvier, Urban Federer, l’abbé d’Ensiedeln (Suisse), écrit au sujet de « la peur d’être perdant » de Hérode et Saül, qui a inspiré « une jalousie, laquelle les a poussés a la haine meurtrière ». C’est un message pour l’Épiphanie pour tous les temps et tous les lieux, mais ça fait bizarre de le lire en particulier aux États-Unis ce 6 janvier 2021.