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Ben Werdmuller
 

Monarch

“Not once at school was I told any of this stuff. I’d heard of the Raj before, although the British always spoke of it as if it was something to be proud of.” +1. And it is nothing to be proud of.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Smartly pointed satire loosely disguised as a thriller. Witty and dark as hell. I loved it.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

GitHub Copilot investigation

“Copi­lot’s whizzy code-retrieval meth­ods are a smoke­screen intended to con­ceal a grubby truth: Copi­lot is merely a con­ve­nient alter­na­tive inter­face to a large cor­pus of open-source code. There­fore, Copi­lot users may incur licens­ing oblig­a­tions to the authors of the under­ly­ing code.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

The Proprietary Syndication Formats

“Guess which format is going to outlast all these proprietary syndication formats. I’d say RSS, which I believe to be true, but really, it’s HTML.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Kanye West plans to acquire conservative social media site Parler

“Parler was created in September 2018 as a free speech alternative to apps like Twitter and Facebook. The app was de-platformed from Google and Apple's app stores in January 2021, following the January Capitol siege.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

How a Secret Rent Algorithm Pushes Rents Higher

“For tenants, the system upends the practice of negotiating with apartment building staff. RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order to raise rents and make more money.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Bakery Creates ‘Pan Solo,’ a 6-Foot Replica of ‘Star Wars’ Hero Made of Bread

“Finally, after a month of work, he was ready: a lovingly wrought 6-foot recreation of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, made entirely of bread. The duo behind the creation, Hannalee Pervan and her mother, Catherine Pervan, called him “Pan Solo.””

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Using the Free Pascal IDE for a week

“I'm not sure what the rationale is for maintaining the text mode FP IDE. It seems kinda quaint in 2022 to maintain a recreation of the old Turbo Pascal editor, but I'm so glad that it's there.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Voter ID laws are creating barriers for transgender people, women and others

“More than 200,000 voting-eligible transgender Americans may find it difficult to cast a ballot in the upcoming midterm elections because of voter ID laws.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Regulating DAOs

“It’s a mistake to defend DAOs on the grounds that code is free speech. Some code is speech, but not all code is speech. And code can also directly affect the world.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Tarana Burke on #MeToo progress and reframing the future

“Ahead of next month’s midterms, she said she’s thinking more than ever about survivors as a key part of the electorate. They can be a powerful voting bloc that could help elect candidates focused on changing policy around sexual and gender-based violence.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Tucker Carlson’s strange rant about Fetterman shows how media fails

“Asking objective news reporters to be aware that a massive apparatus of disinformation is out there waiting to pounce on and exploit hazy reporting seems like the absolute minimum to expect.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

No one is “non-technical”

“Likewise, constraining the word “technical” to refer only to “people who write code” serves to uphold a system in which benefits like compensation and prestige are distributed inequitably—regardless of the actual value of the various techniques being deployed.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Chivalry, by Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran

A lovely little tale, rich with the best kind of British idiosyncrasy, and beautifully illustrated in watercolor.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

An Investor That Agreed to Back Elon Musk's Twitter Bid Wants Out

“"We're all trying to get out of it, to be honest," said Andrea Walne, a general partner at Manhattan Venture Partners.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Coin Center Says Biden Administration 'Criminalized' Open Source Code

““The Biden Administration criminalized the use of Tornado Cash, an open source software tool that helps Americans maintain their privacy while using cryptocurrency and related assets,” states the 36-page lawsuit.” I don’t agree that this has merit, but we’ll see where it goes.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Women share stories in their own words, five years after #MeToo movement

“These women, regularly denied the chance to show their full selves and tell their own stories, do so here in their own words, navigating what it means to find safety and self in the face of widespread public attention, and criticism.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

'Stop the steal' supporters train thousands of U.S. poll observers

"If these people show up to the polls with the intention of disrupting voting from taking place, then I can't imagine a worse threat to democracy than that.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

When spyware turns phones into weapons

“In the long-term, journalists who feel threatened by an invisible enemy that could expose their sources and their private lives to public scrutiny may start to shy away from controversial investigations, curtailing their publications’ coverage, and dealing a blow to press freedom.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

If Trump Runs Again, Do Not Cover Him the Same Way: A Journalist’s Manifesto

“We should be resolutely objective in the sense of seeking evidence and approaching subjects with an open mind. We should not, however, resort to taking everything down the middle, no matter what.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Animal populations experience average decline of almost 70% since 1970, report reveals

“The total loss is akin to the human population of Europe, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and China disappearing, according to the report.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Comedians sue over drug search program at Atlanta airport

“Those 402 [police] stops also yielded more than $1 million in cash and money orders from a total of 25 passengers” even though drugs were not found on them. Absolutely vile.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

How Chinese citizens use puns on Weibo to talk about MeToo and zero-Covid without being censored

“This particular approach to internet speak — substituting words that sound like or are spelled like others — has been an essential part of being online in China for decades, allowing netizens to use the humor and cleverness of spoken Mandarin to dodge censorship.”

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Ben Werdmuller
 

This will be a thread discussing a real world breach involving a drone delivered exploit system that occurred this summer

An epic corporate security breach using drones. The stuff of movies.

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Ben Werdmuller
 

Wildfire Smoke May Carry Deadly Fungi Long Distances

“For years now, researchers have understood that wildfire smoke, and the noxious gases and soot particles it carries, isn’t merely an unpleasant experience that forces people to shut windows and herd children indoors. It’s a significant health hazard that not only triggers asthma and breathing problems, but can harm immune systems for years.”

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