Pandemic Accountability Index is on the 9th edition of these study summaries now.

If it's one Great Barrington Declaration supporter's opinion vs thousands of studies (and more added every day), I think I know which information to trust regarding my health and the health of those around me.

All I can add to the “we reject universal masking” discourse is that it’s not about masks. You aren’t rejecting universal masking, which never happened; you’re rejecting having to think about wearing a mask, and maybe feeling badly about thinking about masks. Can’t help you there.

This is why you need to not just mask, but mask consistently in public.

We certainly paid the price for our lack of knowledge and misplaced trust.

And we sure learned a whole lot about Covid and Long Covid after it became clear my partner was not getting better weeks after the acute infection. We do our best to make sure no one else has to learn that way.

We had no idea about asymptomatic transmission back then, and no one looked sick or was coughing or anything, and we had trusted our neighbors to still be masking when grocery shopping/running errands/etc

We still almost masked up to go inside their house, but gave into pressure and decided not to.

NYT Opinion columnists and manufacturing consent for neverending Covid infections, name a more iconic duo.

Neighbors taking this stance gave me and my (3x vaccinated) family Covid for the first time in 2023 and gave my partner Long Covid - sure would have been “rational” to mask around them, huh?

Not specifically related to this particular shitty aspect of AI, but wanted to put this book on your radar because it’s one of the most accessible (and philosophical!) approaches to AI criticism that I have come across - resonated a lot with me and I think it would with you as well

Too true - would highly recommend this book for an accessible deep dive into the confluence of ideologies at play here, just borrowed it from the library and it’s one of the best things I’ve read this year

I can’t decide between Joan Shelley and Bill Callahan, and we’ve even been blessed with a duet from them

joanshelley.bandcamp.com/track/amberl...

Fantastic - I just ordered a physical copy so I can more easily share with friends, appreciated the reminder and thanks for writing it!

How could I forget 😅 thanks Hagen

An interviewer asked me about America's "cost of living crisis," and I was struck again by how casually we've let such profoundly nightmarish phrases slip into our everyday lexicon.

More Everything Forever by Adam Becker 3/3

The AI Mirror by Shannon Vallor 2/3

Couple book recs for amazing AI critiques (hat tip to @hagenblix.bsky.social for putting them on my radar) - go pick them up at bookshop.org while they’re doing free shipping! 1/3

Counterpoint: “Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe.”

earthsgreatestenemy.com

The Long Heat is finally out from @versobooks.bsky.social today:

It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.

www.versobooks.com/products/331...

Can’t decide what to buy on Prime Day?

Try: absolutely nothing, and then go support indie bookstores instead 📚

Honey Harper and Weyes Blood have been in constant rotation for me these past few years, astoundingly gorgeous music

In “Extraction,” @triofrancos.bsky.social examines the politics of lithium mining in South America—and the complexities of the energy transition. @materialistjew.bsky.social spoke with her about imperfect trade-offs and the nature of democracy.

YES! THIS on GenAI!

Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins:

"An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."

My absolute favorite folk singer/songwriter currently operating is Joan Shelley, and she has a gorgeous new album out today!

If you like this, let it be an invite to the rest of her discography as well, a real source of solace for me these past few years.

joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/real-w...

COVID-19 has revealed that much of the US public is willing to accept mass death and abandonment. We were pushed by propaganda to see many around us as disposable. That helped set the tone for current fascist violations. I wrote about it for @prismreports.org.

prismreports.org/2025/09/16/c...

"But when someone burns an American flag, they are advancing an argument on behalf of valuing human life over property. To desecrate the flag, in other words, is to reveal that the flag itself stands for the devaluing of human life."

thebaffler.com/latest/ameri...