Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 6h

What are we all doing for Halloween decorations this year? I have a ton of spooky gravestones and that kind of thing in the basement, but it's not been a year when I feel like decorating the house with explicit references to death.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

Today I learned that an interview with my great uncle is in the collection of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He "describes his experience as a member of the Dutch Resistance in the Hague; details of his arrest; his time in a slave labor camp; and actions that led to his release."

Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

collections.ushmm.org

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

One of my very favorite things I’ve ever been involved in building. And: I miss that community.

Nine @jinxremoving.bsky.social · 1d

This is a really lovely reminiscence by @werd.io of what it was like to run a popular website in the early 2000s. Also, having met Fred, I can’t overstate how on-brand this snippet is. words.werd.io/we-are-the-m...

Of course, there’s reasonable and then there’s reasonable. One morning after a heavy night of vodkaing, we woke up to discover that our friend Fred (who drew a cartoon about a walrus pirate captain) had changed every single word in every single discussion thread to “gunrock”. These aren’t the sorts of challenges every website owner faces, but they were ours.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 1d

A while back I wrote about how I helped make personality tests on the web popular - and how they were used in an effort to swing an election fifteen years later.

Personality Tests and the Downfall of Democracy

In 2001, I found a way to make personality tests go viral. In 2016, they were used to swing an election.

medium.com

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

I'm always impressed by the finesse with which dropshippers make Instagram ads for the most insane SkyMall Sharper Image level crap. I was just presented with a sophisticated George Clooney level reel for an ice cube maker that makes your ice look like a d20. Just perfect for your old fashioneds.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

"Yesterday, I built all your hopes up by suggesting Trump might win the Nobel Peace Prize, but at least you can console yourself with the fact the CIA did." www.normalisland.co.uk/p/venezuelan...

Venezuelan woman who begged Trump to bomb her country wins Nobel Peace Prize

María Corina Machado has become the first person since Barack Obama to win the Nobel Peace Prize for doing absolutely nothing.

www.normalisland.co.uk

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

Yep, auto-suggest seems unproblematic to me. I think my general AI rule is: suggest things internally but don't publish in public by default.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

I'm skeptical of using AI for alt text generation. The tech is not bad at all about describing what's in a picture, but I'm unconvinced that it can tell you what's *important* in a picture. Maybe if you fed in the context? But a human can write alt text in a minute or two, so is it really worth it?

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

I could watch this on an endless loop.

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 3d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 2d

Genuine relief at this:

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 2d

Our plane to Spain is in the air!

🙌🙌

Thank you so much to the countless people supporting us in every way and in particular all of the Rutgers students and faculty who have supported us every step of the way.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 3d

"He said *what*?!"

[Re-use this post as appropriate]

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 3d

"[An] archipelago of high-trust communities [is] where journalists are uniquely capable of building thriving businesses." werd.io/what-ai-mean...

What AI means for the business of: journalism

"[An] archipelago of high-trust communities [is] where journalists are uniquely capable of building thriving businesses."

werd.io

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I think profiling federal employees is not a thing we would want to do!

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I am at the office

And irresponsibly disregarding the resources of my non-profit employer

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Visceral

Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

What I’m hearing is, no limit

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Is there a physical limit to coffee?

Let's put it to the test

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

This is a form of advertising I can get behind. usa.streetsblog.org/2025/10/08/t...

This Newsroom Is Looking For Its Next Big Tip on the Train — Streetsblog USA

Investigative journalists at ProPublica are betting that the next big tipster is riding the rails right now — and reaching out to find them.

usa.streetsblog.org

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

+1 to this! For me it's the lack of need to worry about oil changes, transmission, and all of that tertiary nonsense that I always hated. Running a car is simple now. I resent even having to own a car, let alone maintain one, so I find it to be a far better situation.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

I like this very much. theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Likewise, when people say that woke has gone too far.

No, it hasn't gone far enough. It was just getting started. There were hundreds of years of oppression that arguably never really ended.

It's almost as if lots of people want to frame disparity as reasonableness.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

It always amuses me when the rights, protections, and entitlements I enjoyed up until my early thirties are described as outrageous socialism that could never work.

Treating people well isn't a fundamentalist position. And in very many countries it's just generally accepted that it's how you do it.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Controversially, I like it when people don’t die in mass numbers, regardless of where they live or what side of a political divide they sit on. And I would go so far as to classify language that downplays any civilian’s humanity as “murderous”.

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 4d

Today I gave a conference keynote, worked on some strategic documentation, had some great 1:1s, participated in some great technical conversations, made breakfast and dinner for the family, and put my child to bed with a story & snuggle.

But tomorrow is trash day and I failed to put out the bins. 🤦‍♂️

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Ben Werdmuller @werd.io · 5d

"The majority of those killed by Israel’s offensive in the strip have been civilians, and the overall total now exceeds 67,000. Entire families have been wiped out in a single airstrike. Sometimes, only a single individual, frequently a child, is left alive." It must end.

The ruin of Gaza: how Israel’s two-year assault has devastated the territory

IDF’s bombs and ground offensive have killed tens of thousands of people and reduced entire cities to rubble

www.theguardian.com

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