The #WSocial mess is about more than one failed platform, it exposes a deeper problem with the EU’s approach to digital sovereignty. If Europe is serious about sovereignty, it needs to stop confusing European ownership with digital freedom. A platform hosted in Europe built as a proprietary, venture-capital project recreates the same #dotcons model under a European flag. Changing the server location doesn’t change the underlying power relationships. This matters because the European Commission…
I stopped by a Filipino/Hawaiian (mostly filipino) restaurant/bar that was recommended to me a few months ago by someone I met at an AANHPI event. One of my friends that was eating with us had gone many times before and said they enjoyed the menu. We looked up the menu before heading over. As a Filipino-American I always get curious about Filipino restaurants because a lot of our dishes are family-style/comfort food, so it’s always interesting to see what foods will be on the menu. To our…
The big story is Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested in Florida on charges of rape and sex trafficking: LONDON – Influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have been arrested in Miami after British authorities issued 38 new charges against them, including allegations of rape and sex trafficking. The United Kingdom’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) released a statement saying that the two men had been arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on Saturday. The CPS said it was “seeking…
For the first time since 1946, the total debt of the United States ($39.5 trillion) is greater than our GDP ($32-ish trillion). The interest on this debt is currently about $1 trillion per year, which is more than we spend on defense. This level of debt won’t create an explosion, but more of a slow burn. To service this debt, yields on bonds will go up, which means borrowing goes up, which means inflation stays high, which means your cost of living stays high. Basically: the United States is in…
Our nation continues its transition from congressional to presidential fiscal control. Retainers of the ancièn regime (“Members of Congress” to you) fumble around looking for something to do as the Administration becomes increasingly assertive. No single recent event moved me to write, but putting several pieces together reveals a picture that is worth noting. The congressional appropriations process is rapidly falling apart. Lacking the filibuster, House minorities have virtually no…
One of the successes of neoliberal capitalism has been convincing us that we’re paying less while actually paying more. They promise lower taxes, then they privatise the services, health insurance becomes a private tax, car finance becomes a transport tax, rent becomes a housing tax, student debt becomes an education tax. The electricity surcharge for AI data centres becomes another hidden tax. You voted to reduce taxes, but all that happened was public taxes became private payments to…
Was going to post on photography, but it's too fucking disturbing to ignore- people wantonly being assassinated on the street by our 'Law and Order' administration, a 'Law and Order' administration led by a rapist, con man, traitor and pedophile revered by millions who proclaim themselves (as does he) to be both Christian and patriotic...
As usual… If you like what you read here, thanks in advance for your subscription (possibly but not necessarily paid) or, even better, one-time donations for any amount, or consulting, writing or speaking work.I just read CNN’s copy of “Trump’s speech claiming US election vulnerabilities, annotated”“, and after that here’s the one thing I can tell you with full confidence: as far US elections vulnerabilities and voting in the US in general are concerned, Donald Trump is 100% right and, albeit…
MAGA believes every single, recycled lie President Trump reiterated this evening concerning the 2020 election. Thank you for your attention to this matter-we now humbly await his state of emergency declaration to steal the midterms!
Is it possible to tame the A.I. beast in higher ed? I am a college professor who sees the handwriting on the wall: it’s only a matter of time before university administrators begin using “A.I. tools” to replace costly faculty. Although resistance is probably futile at this stage, some law school faculties in the U.S. are now starting to fight back by restricting the use of new technologies like “generative A.I.” in the classroom. (See here, for example.) Is this a lost cause or the start of a…
Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, says he wants to make Australia an “attractive destination” for investment in AI development, during a speech delivered on Wednesday. Albanese also wants to balance the opportunities and risks presented by the technologies, particularly concerns that AI uptake will result in widespread job losses. AI will take away jobs, he said, but will also create new and different lines of work. Among proposals is a coordinated national framework, rather than…
The short answer is you, the taxpayer. The explosive growth in automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) has caught many communities off guard. This is especially true as details about their capabilities far beyond simply flagging stolen vehicles become widely known. Yet few citizens stop to ask the foundational question: who is paying for this rapid expansion? As the old saying goes, whenever in doubt, follow the money. Background on ALPR TechnologyALPR technology is not new. Law enforcement…
Bryce Elder, on the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog: Here’s paragraph one of the Morgan Stanley’s SpaceX initiation note: With an ‘X of 1’ position in space infrastructure, we believe SpaceX can convert energy into intelligence at scale with optionality to monetize through a range of consumer and enterprise solutions for the next era of AI… the final frontier. [Adam] Jonas — formerly the Wall Street bank’s Tesla and occasionally other auto companies analyst — was last year reallocated to the…
Quick one, because the states just won round one. On Monday, a federal judge granted a 14-day temporary restraining order (a TRO — an emergency, short-term freeze, not a ruling on the merits) halting the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland issued the order. Paramount and WBD had hoped to close as soon as July 22. That's off the table for at least two weeks. This isn't a ruling on the merits. It's a pause while the actual injunction…
I was recently interviewed about SPINE by Chase of the Rascal News team. Rascal Interview: Agency, frustration, and secrets in Asa Donald’s SPINEPodcast Episode · Rascal News · 20 July · 1hr 3minListen here or wherever you get your podcasts.You can read Chase's writeup on it, including an excerpt, on Rascal's website.
In The Atlantic is a lengthy profile -- over 6500 words -- of Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is contemplating a presidential run.Based on his standing up to President Trump and Pete Hegseth last year regarding the impropriety of military officers following illegal orders and his subsequent legal persecution by the same, I have come to admire Kelly as among the few good men in politics in a position to offer meaningful pushback against Trump's authoritarian, lunatic administration.I welcome this…
I see a considerable contrast between President Zelensky of Ukraine and Vice President J.D. Vance of the U.S. Zelensky is a strong heroic leader standing up to Russia and its despotic psychopathic leader. Ukraine has defied the odds and is now gradually wearing Russia down after more than 4 years of war against a much larger country. J.D. Vance signed the unconditional surrender of the U.S. to Iran with his memorandum of understanding. Iran got everything with that deal, and the U.S. got…
The existence of such an opt-out mechanism seems absurd but is an unfortunately reality in Belgium due to existence of management companies. Let us imagine you are a single independent consultant who expects to realize an annual turnover of EUR 120.000, resulting in a profit of EUR 110.500 (low cost structure). What are your options? I wish to pay my fair share of taxes.You perform your activities as an independent without management company. You will pay EUR 58.822 to the Belgian government…
Yesterday I was going through the “onboarding” process via Zoom with two new Editors at the Open Journal of Astrophysics (OJAp) when one of them mentioned a recent policy decision at the USA which means we’ll probably get even more papers submitted from there. I wasn’t aware of the decision, but there’s an article in the Times Higher about it here. In a nutshell: Under proposed rule changes published by the Office of Management and Budget, all journal publication costs – “including page…
See here and here for the rest of the thread.the thing is all state AGs have to do to deep-six this merger is delay it until OpenAI can't pay Oracle, Oracle's stock dives, Larry's collateral goes poof, etc.[image or embed]— Christopher Mims (@mims.bsky.social) July 20, 2026 at 11:09 AM(Christopher Mims is a longtime tech columnist for The Wall Street Journal, just so you know I'm not quoting some rando here.)In case you missed it, here's the story from the Los Angeles Times.[Emphasis added]…
“After hundreds of millennia in which all humans had direct access to the commons, it took only a few centuries… to cut off the vast majority of people on Earth from direct access to the means of economic production and therefore to rob them of the power to say no. It took only a few generations to convince most people that this situation was natural and inevitable. That false lesson needs to be unlearned.” Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall The starting point is simple, Marx was right about…
21st July 2026 Why it is far more important to have an effective politician as Lord Chancellor, rather than somebody who happens to be legally qualified. * From time to time, and from cabinet reshuffle to cabinet reshuffle, some politician is appointed to the combined role of Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor who is not a lawyer. It happened again yesterday. And each time this happens, and it has happened a few times now, there is an adverse reaction, a groaning of some lawyers. This post…
Want more public services, help with the cost of living, a simplified tax system and a reduction in the public sector deficit? It sounds like a Reform manifesto, but what I’m referring to is a detailed, radical and costed programme published by Prosperity 2030, a research institute at University College London. It got some publicity when its publication was accompanied by an Open Letter signed by, among others. Jim O’Neill, who is advising our new PM. One of the core aspects of the programme is…
We regret this is as late as it is; there was a power outage that caused some havoc. Foreign Affairs, Part I: Iran Mess Gets Messier During the Civil War, one of the jobs that officers had after a battle was over was to write a report on what had happened with their company/regiment/brigade/division/corps, including casualty figures, and then to submit it to the higher-ups. These reports were, along with a bunch of other official documents, compiled after the war into a 128-volume work…
If you believe Meta, its forthcoming Albertan data centre will be, at worst, unnoticeable to people across this province: We pay the full costs of our data centers’ energy use so consumers aren’t negatively impacted, and fund new and upgraded infrastructure. We worked closely with Greenlight Limited Partnership, Altalink, Capitol Power, and the Alberta Electric System Operator to plan for and meet our energy needs years in advance of this data center coming online. Sure sounds like the…
Could you survive one of the toughest military campaigns in history - the Braddock expedition to the North American wilderness in 1755? Watch to find out
A new dawn has broken has it not? You could be forgiven for thinking these famed words of Tony Blair applies to our shiny new Prime Minister. Outside Downing Street sans the lectern and without the benefit of a crib sheet, Andy Burnham sketched out his plan for his premiership. Tomorrow we're going to see immediate measures to ease the cost of living and set out the direction of travel. Perhaps some of my suggestions might make the cut? This, in due course, is going to be followed by a ten-year…
Last week the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled his government’s AI strategy. Part of the proposed framework includes a provision to ensure Australian writers, musicians, artists, and journalists, are paid in the event their work is used in the development of AI agents. This is as it should be. Anyone else who wants to access copyrighted material needs to pay. It should be no different for the big tech, and AI, companies. As someone who writes predominately online, a blogger,…
Recently, there has been a wave of Democratic Socialist candidates displacing their usually much older establishment predecessors. The results of Colorado primaries, I found quite symbolic. A sitting congresswoman DeGette got primaried by a 40 (fucking forty!) year younger Kiros.(What I found especially crazy is that Kiros was literally born in a year that DeGette first assumed office)And, that may be a good point for starting a conversation on the nature of political power. Or, more…
Diana Novak Jones, Reuters: Meta Platforms faces trial in Tennessee on Monday over the state’s claims that Instagram’s design is to blame for a youth mental-health crisis, one of several trials in the coming weeks testing allegations that the company’s social media platforms were intentionally built to be addictive. I imagine Meta will spend considerable time trying to nail down a definition of “addiction”. The lawsuit makes no attempt to define the term, though it does quote several internal…
