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Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff

Alexander Howard @digiphile.bsky.social · 6m

Hypothesis: The disconnect between US news media coverage of causes of death and what Americans actually die from is then reflected in what people are scared of & what politicians invest in, or defund. Refocusing attention on causes will help all of us reduce harm.
ourworldindata.org/does-the-new...

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Dr. Amanda Wyatt Visconti @literaturegeek.bsky.social · 4h

On how Mamdani in one line "connects everything Democrats claim to fight for w/trans rights". "It's an entire political ad, from a major Democratic politician, that is exclusively defending trans rights. Has this ever happened before?" (IDs video's use of trans legendary musician Sophie's work too):

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 2d

I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:

www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...

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kottke.org @kottke.org · 58m

Humans of New York has taken over all of Grand Central Terminal for a huge art installation called Dear New York. “For the first time possibly ever, there is not a single ad to be seen in Grand Central Terminal.” [news.artnet.com]

‘Humans of New York’ Transforms Grand Central Into a Monumental Photo Show

Brandon Stanton, creator of “Humans of New York,” has launched New York’s largest public art installation since “The Gates” at Grand Central.

news.artnet.com

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Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 58m

Instagram said "for teen accounts, it would hide or not recommend posts with strong language, certain risky stunts, sexually suggestive poses or marijuana paraphernalia. It also said AI experiences for teens would be 'guided by PG-13 ratings by default,' with limits on the types of responses given."

Ben Goggin @bengoggin.bsky.social · 1h

NEW: Instagram says it's overhauling how teens experience the app, making it more ‘PG-13’
www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-...

Instagram says it will make the app more ‘PG-13’ for teens with a new series of changes

After outrage over teens’ well-being on Instagram erupted, the company said it would adopt the film industry’s approach to content and aim to give teens a PG-13 experience.

www.nbcnews.com

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Eric Reinhart @eric-reinhart.com · 8h

This is an alarming compression of the planetary destruction timeline: with the massive growth of the AI bubble, data centers are expected to consume up to 12% of total US electricity by 2028, up from 4.4% in 2023.
www.cnn.com/2025/10/13/t...

Sora 2 and ChatGPT are consuming so much power that OpenAI just did another 10 gigawatt deal | CNN Business

OpenAI is partnering with Broadcom to design and develop 10 gigawatts of custom AI chips and systems, a massive amount of power that will use as much electricity as a large city. The move further high...

www.cnn.com

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henry ✷ @strange.website · 56m

fwiw I first learned about the website-publishing-as-gardening / the digital garden metaphor from @maggieappleton.com, who's done some really lovely and comprehensive writing on the topic

maggieappleton.com/garden-history

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Paul Guinnessy @paulguinnessy.bsky.social · 59m

"If millions of Americans are feeling that — and I agree that they are — shouldn’t it get some news coverage?"

"...But instead, we still are encouraged to plumb the depths of Trump voters’ brains. Their feelings. Over and over again."

The media is largely ignoring the trauma of millions. Here's why.

Plus: Watch George Stephanopolous pushes JD Vance with follow-up questions, cringe at Bari Weiss's pep talk to CBS journalists; and more

margaretsullivan.substack.com

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 10h

"During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she 'doesn’t look like' a Greeley."

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

Chicago Tribune: Greeley, who was born at Illinois Masonic hospital and is adopted, carries a copy of her passport just in case she runs into federal agents.

“I am Latina and I am a service worker,” Greeley said. “I fit the description of what they’re looking for now.”

During the encounter, Greeley said they told her she “doesn’t look like” a Greeley.

“They said this isn’t real, they kept telling me I’m lying, I’m a liar,” Greeley recalled. “I told them to look in the rest of my wallet, I have my credit cards, my insurance.”

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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 9h

The entire incident is infuriating and terrifying. She’s a Latina woman who was working a service job. On her way home late at night, with her headphones in, she was detained for an hour by masked federal agents who wouldn’t give her their names.

Maria Greeley, 44, had just finished working a double shift at the Beach Bar on Ohio Street
earlier this month when she said she was surrounded by three federal agents who grabbed her, forced her hands behind her back and zip tied her.
Headphones in, Greeley had been focused on getting home to her two dogs for a walk.
Instead, she said she was detained by masked agents who did not answer when she asked for names. They questioned her for an hour, she said.

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Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 12h

The gutting of the VRA in recent years is one of the topics mostly likely to get me in a fight with folks on social media, mostly because so few even know what Shelby v Holder was, or to what extent voting has not been free OR fair in much of the South, in the most racist ways imaginable.

Barred and Boujee aka Madiba Dennie @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social · 18h

Wednesday is gonna be a rough day:

The Supreme Court will be hearing oral argument in a pair of cases that threaten what little remains of the federal government’s ability to protect voters from racial gerrymandering under the Voting Rights Act

ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/louis...

Louisiana v Callais: The Republicans Justices Are Getting Ready to Finish Off the Voting Rights Act

In Louisiana v Callais, John Roberts will have the chance to finish his decades-long war on. voting rights.

ballsandstrikes.org

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Errant @errantv.bsky.social · 21h

"I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own bunker, who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves.'

The techbros will be the first to be torn to pieces by mobs if society collapses

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Cas Piancey @cascoinfoundation.org · 15h

Friend AI has gone from a $99 pre-order for the screenless necklace to $130 and then to a free-to-use website chatbot.

The founder is now suggesting even a single interaction with the chatbot counts as making a new friend.

Monthly active users go brrrrrrr.

Protos @protos.com · 22h

Friend AI spent millions on mimicking friendship — now it’s just another chatbot protos.com/friend-ai-sp...

Friend AI spent millions on mimicking friendship -- now it's just another chatbot

Friend AI has sold around 1,000 units, which at $130 each would mean the startup has earned almost $150,000 on nearly $8M raised.

protos.com

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 17h

I don't see how one could ban paid protest even if we wanted to. At best people might be capable of being forced to reveal that they are paid, but that would require law

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Boris @bmann.ca · 19h

More broadly - enable a lot of people to experiment.

Lots won’t be tech: it will be community & design & specific topics and regions.

brendan @schlage.town · 20h

atmospheric attractor acceleration assembly:

if you could spend time and/or $ in new ways to accelerate migration from twitter to bluesky (+ github to tangled, substack to leaflet, etc!) what would you try?

experiments, incentives, rhetorical strategies? drop your wildest ideas; let's try em!

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 17h

Then get rid of Citizens United first and even beyond that, Citizens United is irrelevant. Journalists and think tank employees are both paid speech and they were protected before Citizens United.

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 20h

Data export processing. All these platforms have data export now, processing them effectively into new social media accounts on the new platform would help bring people over

brendan @schlage.town · 20h

atmospheric attractor acceleration assembly:

if you could spend time and/or $ in new ways to accelerate migration from twitter to bluesky (+ github to tangled, substack to leaflet, etc!) what would you try?

experiments, incentives, rhetorical strategies? drop your wildest ideas; let's try em!

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Reposted by Aram Zucker-Scharff

brendan @schlage.town · 20h

atmospheric attractor acceleration assembly:

if you could spend time and/or $ in new ways to accelerate migration from twitter to bluesky (+ github to tangled, substack to leaflet, etc!) what would you try?

experiments, incentives, rhetorical strategies? drop your wildest ideas; let's try em!

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Aram Zucker-Scharff @chronotope.aramzs.xyz · 20h

This exactly. I'm increasingly of the mind that the correct way to engage in these "paid protester" bs convos is 'no, but even if they were that's legal free speech'

Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20h

- It is legal to organize and fund protest.
- That someone organizes and funds promotion of a protest does not mean most, some, or any protesters are paid.
- Even if all protesters are paid, that is also legal
- It is good to oppose kings and fascism
- That's not what what "begs the question" means

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23h

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 20h

- It is legal to organize and fund protest.
- That someone organizes and funds promotion of a protest does not mean most, some, or any protesters are paid.
- Even if all protesters are paid, that is also legal
- It is good to oppose kings and fascism
- That's not what what "begs the question" means

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 23h

Sean Duffy: "The No Kings protest, Maria, really frustrating. This is part of antifa, paid protesters. It begs the question who's funding it."

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 20h

When authoritarians tell you they like authoritarianism, over and over and over and over and over again, believe them

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 21h

Trump on Egypt: "They have very little crime. Because they don't play games. That's why. Like we do in the United States with governors that have no idea what they're doing."

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@NewsJennifer (Jennifer Schulze) @newsjennifer.bsky.social · 21h

CBS News would never put a thinly sourced 'story' by a rookie blogger like this on it's air. Until now. The Free Press isn't a journalism outlet, it's bloggers aren't reporters. This piece is more NYPost than Tiffany Network but I guess that's the goal.

www.cbsnews.com/video/some-n...

Some NYPD officers worry about Mandani becoming the NYC mayor, The Free Press reports

The Free Press spoke to several New York City Police Department officers who are worried about Zohran Mamdani becoming mayor. Olivia Reingold joins CBS News with more.

www.cbsnews.com

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Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · 21h

Special education isn't a "nice thing to have." It isn't "charity" or doing something to make us feel better. It is a right. The right to a Free Appropriate Public Education is codified in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, signed by a Republican president.

Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 1d

U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency's employees. www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

Education Department wipes out special ed office in shutdown layoffs, union says

The Education Department laid off nearly everyone at the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

www.usatoday.com

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The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 22h

A historic wave of retirements and other departures has swept through the federal workforce in recent months, putting enormous strain on agencies as they cope with a new government shutdown and administration layoffs.

Historic wave of retirements is putting huge strains on the government

Tens of thousands of federal employees have taken retirement or other voluntary departures on top of the Trump administration’s latest layoffs.

www.washingtonpost.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23h

underrated part of this is that stoller very clearly has no idea what "the passive voice" is

Ghostin this Hell @hoovybaby.bsky.social · 1d

no quarter given lmao

Matt Stoller & @matthewstoller • 2h
UPS had seven months of warning about the de minimis change, but is still taking packages w/o getting required customs info & is making tariff charge errors.
Nice use of passive voice though!

derek guy
@dieworkwear • 2h
i apologize using a passive voice. i was not born in london to a wealthy bank executive, sent to an exclusive private prep school in new hampshire, and then studied at harvard before larping as a champion of the people. you have to work with my low upbringing.

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Leah Shaffer @leahshaffer.bsky.social · 22h

#ScienceSky, tell your colleagues to leave X, delete those x buttons on your lab page and replace with a butterfly. I declare #Bluesky the official social network for science and by scientists (you and your network of colleagues operate as your own algorithm determining what you see here). 🩺 🧪

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI, here is the press release for my study with @drjuliawester.bsky.social - we surveyed over 800 scientists who use social media. They overwhelmingly agree that Twitter is no longer useful or pleasant, and that for all professional online scientist goals, Bluesky is superior.
🧪 #SciComm 🌍

“Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky:” Our new survey shows that scientists no longer find Twitter professionally useful or pleasant

My colleague Dr. Julia Wester and I have a new paper out in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology reporting on the results of a survey distributed to over 800 scientists, science educator…

www.southernfriedscience.com

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