Here, @Cory Doctorow neatly distills the real problem with Bluesky ... ... which is that, because they don't offer a way to quickly leave *and take all your followers with you*, as Mastodon does ... ... it risks becoming a trap. You spend months, years, building up connections to tons of cool people ... ... and then Bluesky enshittifies, not because of any individual terrible decision, but because of a ton of small forced-hand ones The essay:

Pluralistic: Bluesky and enshittification (02 Nov 2024) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

More evidence -- this time with audio tapes from the original experiment -- showing that the Stanford Prison Experiment was rigged to encourage terrible behavior by the guards In Medium: https://gen.medium.com/the-lifespan-of-a-lie-d869212b1f62 Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/K7gMN Talking about this with my son, I was struck by how many pieces of major science/theory/culture in the mid-20th-century insisted that they "proved" humanity was inherently, natively selfish -- but turned out to be much less true 1/x

Behold the work of Darya Kawa Mirza, a self-taught Kurdish photographer who produces astonishingly detailed pictures of the moon ... ... by zooming in close on individual tiny craters, taking over 80,000 shots of those, then compositing them together into individual, incredibly detailed landscapes Item #1 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #26: “Cryptophasia”, Wigner Crystals, and How van Gogh Mastered Turbulence

Hello hello! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — or, "the opposite of doomscrolling”, crammed full of the finest items of science, cultu...

Okay people 📣 It's time 🕙 once again for ... ... the latest issue of the "Linkfest", in which I harvest the finest items of science, culture and technology 🔬 "the opposite of doomscrolling" Free to read and subscribe to here 📬 :

Linkfest #26: “Cryptophasia”, Wigner Crystals, and How van Gogh Mastered Turbulence

Hello hello! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — or, "the opposite of doomscrolling”, crammed full of the finest items of science, cultu...

This issue contains: 💬 "cryptophasia" 💠 they made Wigner crystals 💨 how van Gogh grasped turbulence math that didn't yet exist 🗿 the newest written language ever 🌲 "midwood" 🌋 geothermal power from volcanos ⌨️ a moebius keyboard AND MOAR

Some more reading for you fine people: 🙏 a step-counter for prayers:

Rest of World

A step counter, but for your prayers

At least 20 apps exist to help Muslims track their dhikrs, a form of Islamic worship in which people repeat prayers and holy phrases.

🖌️ temporary paint you can peel off a wall: https://www.fastcompany.com/91194858/unpaint-peel-off-paint-accidental-discovery 💥 calculating the odds of a universe-destroying Higgs-field decay:

Quanta Magazine

Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon) | Quanta Magazine

One of the quantum fields that fills the universe is special because its default value seems poised to eventually change, changing everything.

All sourced from my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read here and subscribe:

Linkfest #25: The "Third Thumb", Prairie Strips, and Science Proves People Love Spoilers

Hello folks! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I ceaselessly roam the Internet’s Plut...

Behold a custom-made 21-segment LED that uses a font design from 1898 Item #14 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free to read and subscribe to here:

Linkfest #25: The "Third Thumb", Prairie Strips, and Science Proves People Love Spoilers

Hello folks! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I ceaselessly roam the Internet’s Plut...

It turns out that the major AI search engines, when asked about IQ scores around the world … … have been citing the racist, deeply flawed data-set of white supremacist Richard Lynn — which offers preposterously low scores for countries like Kenya and Sierra Leone These numbers are often excitedly cited on white supremacist sites — they have unusual influence. The guy who killed ten Black Americans in Buffalo in 2022? He talked about them Wired story here:

WIRED

Google, Microsoft, and Perplexity Are Promoting Scientific Racism in Search Results

The web’s biggest AI-powered search engines are featuring the widely debunked idea that white people are genetically superior to other races.

"Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics" An excellent @404 Media investigation into "Locate X", a tracking tool that uses ad-tracking tech -- specifically, "mobile advertising identifiers" -- to follow people around

404 Media

Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics

Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the world. Ab...

This letter written by Charles Babbage in 1840 is fascinating ... ... since it appears to be his earliest ever attempt to describe computational recursion in plain language He *had* to use plain language -- the very concepts he was struggling to enunciate didn't yet have names As Bruce Sterling puts it, this passage is “a breathless, painful description of the unique ability of software to operate on itself” Item #12 in my latest "Linkfest" newsletter, free here:

Linkfest #25: The "Third Thumb", Prairie Strips, and Science Proves People Love Spoilers

Hello folks! It’s time for my latest “Linkfest” — i.e. "the opposite of doomscrolling”, in which I ceaselessly roam the Internet’s Plut...