Dr Alina Utrata
@alinau27.bsky.social
Tech & Politics. Career Development Research Fellow at St Johns College, Oxford. PhD from Uni of Cambridge via Queen's University Belfast & Stanford. Host of Anti-Dystopians. she/her Agent, @agentbal.bsky.social www.alinautrata.com
Make a Tech Fascist sweat—pre-order "The Nerd Reich" book today! Available wherever you buy books. Use this link to support independent booksellers and my work: bookshop.org/a/109206/978...
The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy
“This transfixing debut from journalist Durán investigates the antidemocratic ideologies espoused by tech billionaires linked to the second Trump administration...It’s an ominous look at an insular el...
bookshop.org
New from 404 Media: Apple's 'Private Relay' is exposing users' real IP addresses. Private Relay is supposed to protect all your browsing in Safari. But researchers found a bunch of issues that are exposing real IPs. I verified they do. Not fixed, a live issue www.404media.co/apples-priva...
Apple's ‘Private Relay’ Is Exposing Users' Real IP Addresses
Researchers found a group of issues that mean Private Relay isn't actually protecting users' real IP addresses. 404 Media verified the issues do expose IP addresses.
404media.co
UK continues to desperately try to get Apple to break encryption www.ft.com/content/2cc9...
Apple launches legal challenge to UK attempt to access encrypted user data
iPhone maker files complaint over latest government demand to connect to cloud backups of British users
ft.com
Thank you to Green Gathering - such a wonderful weekend! I'll be at lots of other festivals this summer - we're building our movement and creating an alternative to the old party politics. Join.greenparty.org.uk
NOW OUT ON FIRSTVIEW!! #Good #Governance as #Responsible #Sovereignty: Francis Deng & the Conflict–Development Nexus By @connorpobrien.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S153...
The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.
The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor
The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.
futurism.com
"Study for the Federal Aviation Administration concluded by 2035, debris from SpaceX satellites alone could kill or injure someone every two years." Into orbit doesn't mean safely away #Pollution #PublicHealth www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/w...
A Ton of Space Junk Tumbles Unpredictably to Earth Every Week
Flaming chunks of metal crash into homes, farms and parking lots. Who’s to blame? And who pays for the damage?
nytimes.com
1. Amnesty International has withstood threats from death squads and dictators. But it could not stand up to JK Rowling and the anti-trans movement she finances. It has apologized for calling those groups "anti-rights" after legal threats. Subscribe to support our journalism.
Amnesty International UK Caves To JK Rowling, Issues Apology For Calling Anti-Trans Groups "Anti-Rights"
The organization has stood up to dictators and death squads, but Rowling and the UK's anti-speech laws were apparently too much.
erininthemorning.com
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation. Reuters analysis found artificial intelligence watermark that signals it was made with OpenAI tools. but the AGI will replace us 🫠🫠🫠🫠 www.reuters.com/world/africa...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...
reuters.com
Uber Eats and DoorDash hid tip buttons and set default tips below 10%. As a result, tips for delivery workers fell 79%. In January, we made these corporations change their apps — and in the past six months, we've put $104 million back in delivery workers' pockets. This is only the beginning.
Whilst the cost of living crisis continues to spiral, with food and fuel prices soaring, so do global oil and gas companies profits. Shell has today announced it's profits have more than doubled. This is obscene. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
Shell profit more than doubles to $9.8 billion, second-highest on record, as Iran war lifts prices
Shell's net profit more than doubled from last year to $9.84 billion in the second quarter, beating expectations, helped by higher energy prices and increased market volatility during the Middle Eas...
reuters.com
If not a bailout then certainly a well-timed announcement
‘Like pretty much all of his movies, it’s a man on a quest to recover or avenge a lost woman. One can do a very long list of all the Nolan-tropes that come up in this film.’ @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social on Christopher Nolan’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘥𝘺𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘺, on the podcast. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...
Nolan v. Homer
Podcast Episode · The LRB Podcast · 26 July · 52min
podcasts.apple.com
Emily Wilson's LRB review of the Odyssey was absolutely delightful reading www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Emily Wilson · An Uncomplicated Man
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
lrb.co.uk
1. The new Trump / Kratsios plan for US science appears explicitly designed to destroy US universities. Diverting money to tech donors is probably just a bonus. Gift link.
Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities (Gift Article)
Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.
nytimes.com
companies are sourcing millions of printed books for AI labs that scan them for training data, then destroy them. printed books are more valuable because they're free of AI slop, and AI labs know destroying them is an "optics problem." www.404media.co/ai-companies...
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They're Free of AI Slop
ISBNdb, a company that sources printed books for AI companies to turn into training data, tells clients “the optics problem is real.”
404media.co
Robert Peston, "Would you work with Andy Burnham, can he build consensus with the Greens for example?" Zack Polanski, "My problem is, some of these appointments today suggest a continuity Keir Starmer"
"Shabana Mahmood staying as Home Secretary to presumably continue her appalling record of performative cruelty towards migrants and refugees is a warning sign that Burnham has not learnt the lessons from Starmer's failure," says Zack Polanski
A lot of people don’t realize the dust bowl wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It happened when agrobusiness interests dramatically transformed the plains without regard for drought, and created vicious dust storms that choked whole families to death. That’s what I think of when I read about data centers.
This would be a deeply irresponsible and destructive act at any time. To do it whilst we're having a third heatwave of the year and thousands of people have just died from extreme temperatures - makes it also politically incoherent. We urgently need to replace Labour.
Mark Chadbourn@chadbourn.bsky.social · 3w agoDrill, baby, drill.
The Times has become of the most viciously, relentlessly transphobic publications in the country, and the competition is stiff. It's like the Daily Rowling.
Tristan Stewart-Robertson@srtristan.bsky.social · 3w agoThe Times, first with the news, has discovered a report from May, though they leave out how it showed the Times itself is leading in its war on trans people.
Elon Musk's xAI has installed more than double the number of gas turbines than it has publicly acknowledged to power its Colossus 2 data center project, without federal permits, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest reut.rs/4bIghEm
In pub. Resisting impulse to yell "All national identities are fundamentally fictitious!"
