Below are posts associated with the “link” type.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: Ted Lasso season 3 might be the show’s final one - The Verge'
I hope it will be the last. End it while it’s still good.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: Two-Thirds of Republicans Believe Great Replacement Theory, New Poll Shows'
GOP has some reckoning to do.
🔗 linkblog: ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Is a Mashup of the Things That Make Up Star Wars'
I’m interested in this argument about Star Wars feeling like a TTRPG campaign setting. Throughout much of middle and high school, I played the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars TTRPG, and that made even the prequel movies beloved because they became a setting to explore rather than movies to be unsatisfied with.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: After Uvalde, social media monitoring apps struggle to justify surveillance - The Verge'
This article may make its way into a chapter I’m writing on how assumptions about education shape our understanding of what appropriate data collection looks like. As Audrey Watters has written, this kind of thing is very much edtech, and we need to be critical about how we deploy it. Even if it did work, I’m not sure the surveillance would be worth it. If it doesn’t work, all the more reason to be skeptical.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: Richard Scarry's 21st Century Classroom | Boing Boing'
Tom the Dancing Bug is usually just the right level of dark.
🔗 linkblog: ‘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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.
🔗 linkblog: '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.
🔗 linkblog: '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.
🔗 linkblog: 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.