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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 17h

🎵Everybody have you heard? I'm gonna buy me a mockingbird...🎵
m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WM_...

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 20h

Not true @wsj.com www.upi.com/Science_News...

Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Mar 11

It’s finally here! Mechanisms as Metaphors: How Board Games Create Meaning takes a look at how board games make persuasive arguments, how they might move us emotionally, and how the ways we talk about the form might hinder its development.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4z...

Mechanisms as Metaphors: How Board Games Create Meaning

YouTube video by Mary & Amabel Holland

www.youtube.com

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 1d

Fascinating how it doesn't touch the sidewalk or storefront...

Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 1d

An absolutely terrifying SCOOP from @mattburgess1.bsky.social and @agreenberg.bsky.social revealing that everything from inflight browsing data to military communications are being beamed unencrypted from satellites all the time

www.wired.com/story/satell...

Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data

With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

Andy Greenberg @agreenberg.bsky.social · 1d

Researchers pointed a satellite dish at the sky for 3 years and monitored what unencrypted data it picked up. The results were shocking: They obtained thousands of T-Mobile users' phone calls and texts, military and law enforcement secrets, much more: www.wired.com/story/satell... 🧵👇

Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data

With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

The Onion @theonion.com · 1d

Nation’s Indigenous People Confirm They Don’t Need Special Holiday, Just Large Swaths Of Land Returned Immediately https://theonion.com/nation-s-indigenous-people-confirm-they-don-t-need-spec-1839033177/

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 1d

I'm a fan!

Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 1d

Oh FFS, "chatfishing" when your online connection uses chatbots to craft messages instead of themselves: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder

Where once people were duped by soft-focus photos and borrowed chat-up lines, now they have to watch out for computer-generated charm. But it’s one thing to use a witty phrase – another thing entirely...

www.theguardian.com

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

Let me count the ways. Applin 2018: medium.com/@AnthroPunk/... (scooping the WSJ by 7 years.)

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

Ideas.

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

www.en.ethnologie.uni-muenchen.de/aktuelles/cf...

www.en.ethnologie.uni-muenchen.de

Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 2d

Final 2025 Nobel Prize tally: 2 of 14 awardees are women

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

Fischer and Applin 2026 (maybe 2025) "Anthropology of Artificial Intelligence: Agency, Powerful Knowledge and the Algorithmic Other" in Handbook of Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence.

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

All of the dumb ideas seem to come from either Stanford drop-outs (Altman) or Standford graduates (Thiel).

Futurism @futurism.com · 2d

So that's where we're at.

Sam Altman Says If Jobs Gets Wiped Out, Maybe They Weren't Even "Real Work" to Start With

Worried that AI will destroy work? Well, Sam Altman asks if you've considered what a farmer from half a century ago thinks of your job, first.

trib.al

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

We have a book chapter covering related coming out early next year in Handbook of Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence

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Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

California Governor Gavin Newsom "vetoed a bill on Saturday that would have provided more transparency around the water usage of data centers, which regularly require millions of gallons of fresh water to cool their computers."

Gavin Newsom blocks effort to make CA data centers disclose water use. Why?

Data-center water usage can vary from 110 million gallons to 1.8 billion gallons per year.

www.sacbee.com

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Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 2d

This is your periodic reminder that you can add coffee stains to your LaTeX documents.

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

One thing the article did not suggest, was the family making dinner together

Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · 2d

“I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I felt terrible about giving it up. The messaging on family dinner is intense! I would like to get the PR machine behind family dinner working for the end of gun violence in America.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/o...

Opinion | Why I Had to Kill Family Dinner

www.nytimes.com

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Dr. S.A. Applin @anthropunk.bsky.social · 2d

That needs to be contextualized. Specifically, how Thiel found fault with the philosophy program's course addressing diversity and multiculturalism, which inspired him to found a conservative/libertarian newspaper at Stanford, funded by the "godfather of neo conservatism." He doesn't count.

brasidas @brasidas.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone who claims that Silicon Valley would be better with more humanities education has to grapple with the fact that Peter Thiel was a philosophy major.

Reposted by Dr. S.A. Applin

Hagen Blix @hagenblix.bsky.social · 13d

Advertisers know that what your friends think is far more important to your purchasing decisions than ads are. No wonder they're trying to substitute bots for your friends

Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 13d

What an unsurprising decision by corporations that desperately need to make money with AI. If every other company with a chatbot isn't already doing this, then expect them to be following Meta's lead soon. The chatbot is not your friend; it's a corporate listening device. www.ft.com/content/22f7...