Arjun Basu
@arjun.bsky.social
Novelist. Proud Montrealer/Fier Montréalais. Beer league hockey. Habs. Board member Access Copyright. A "Certified Elder.” Brand/content consultant. Host The Full Bleed, a podcast about the future of (print) magazines. https://linktr.ee/arjunbasu
It is a GENIUS messaging strategy to link AI and data centers to dick swinging toxic masculinity and I want more of it.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 7h agoEl-Sayed: "Mike Rogers is a guy who wants to put a data center in your backyard so he can make himself feel a little more manly by making an AI video ... he's a guy who went back to Florida so he could lick every single boot Donald Trump owns to bet for his endorsement."
Influencer is just another word for advertising without the guardrails.
Josh Gondelman@joshgondelman.bsky.social · 9h agoThis is such an great feature (Rebecca is great!), and I've been thinking about it for a few days. IMO, "Influencer" in the ten-years-ago sense was really a LOT of jobs (spokesmodel/copywriter/etc.) but now it's morphing, at least in part, into "intentionally annoying person" which feels worse.
Google is bad. On purpose.
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net · 10h agoWhen Google's users searched for airlines' toll-free phone numbers, Google directed them to phones that rang in the scammers' boiler room, where they were tricked into giving up their passport info and credit card numbers to boiler-room thieves: www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne... 20/
In the very near future, no one will believe we had a policy this good. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...
End of carbon tax rebates a financial hit for Canada’s poorest, research shows
Rebates were tax-free payments that compensated consumers for the cost of carbon taxes
theglobeandmail.com
Blindingly obvious that this is targeted at “degrees we think women get.”
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoPresident Trump is banning students majoring in degrees that don’t make enough money from taking out college loans. Degrees for social work, art, religious studies, teaching aides, and music will be hit the hardest. trib.al/aaAEu6v
Gilgamesh would be jealous. Certain tech bros, too.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · yesterday‘When you kill it, it doesn’t die’: the jellyfish that has cracked the secret of immortality
Luckily The Four Humors are much funnier than The Three Tenors, though not as funky as The Four Tops.
Andrew D Thaler@drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 2d agoWe've come full circle and have arrived back at the Four Humors: Testosterone, Estrogen, Cortisol, Dopamine.
When the levee breaks, we'll have no place to stay.... Or shows to watch. Maybe.
HOLLYWOOD’S CASTE SYSTEM
For Media CEOs, it’s not about competition, it’s about control.
open.substack.com
This is a story about the President and several of his hand-picked appointees all committing crimes and blatantly lying to the public while stealing public funds and abusing the criminal justice system, but the NYTimes describes the situation like they're recapping a soap opera.
Larry Glickman@larryglickman.bsky.social · 3d agoAnother example of the problem with the fixation with Trump’s putative emotions: here a story about the Trump administration’s corruption, incompetence, and venality is framed as one about Trump’s “wrath.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/01/u...
I can't stress enough what a crisis this is. Trump's own intelligence agencies concluded that Iran attacked Minnesota's critical infrastructure and Trump is saying that it's Minnesota's own fault and denying it was Iran. The federal government won't defend blue states in a literal war.
U.S. Sees Iran as Likely Behind Cyberattack on Minnesota Water Systems (Gift Article)
Investigators cautioned that the assessment was preliminary. There were no indications that any water supply had been rendered unsafe to drink.
nytimes.com
Russia is already at war with the West, part 3 000: www.lapresse.ca/actualites/r...
Bas-Saint-Laurent | Une cyberattaque russe cible une station d’eau potable
La petite municipalité de Saint-Noël, dans le Bas-Saint-Laurent, rapporte que sa station d’eau potable a été visée par une cyberattaque d’origine russe, la semaine dernière. « L’important, c’est que l...
lapresse.ca
We have companies openly admitting to violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse act and nothing is being done.
Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 6d agoBREAKING: Anthropic announced that its artificial intelligence models had breached three different organizations during cybersecurity tests that went awry, a little more than a week after its chief rival, OpenAI, disclosed a similar incident.
“What seems to be important,” wrote scientist James Lovelock in a 1966 memo to Shell, is “the almost certain fact that the climate is worsening and the probability that the combustion of fuel is responsible.”
Rebecca John@rebeccajohn.bsky.social · last wk.As Shell faces a landmark climate lawsuit, "confidential" documents from the 1960s show British scientist James Lovelock warning executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels. See his June 1966 memo published in full for the first time with my latest for @desmog.com
Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
There's nothing more soul cleansing and soul sucking all at once than 4 straight hours of procrastination.
I was a guest on a podcast about "success and failure" but mostly we talked about magazines and "legacy" and attention and advertising. And how young people are in the process of saving everything. As they should. Because there's a lot to save. open.substack.com/pub/startups...
The internet didn’t kill magazines. We did.
I had one of my favourite conversations in a long time this week with writer and Full Bleed podcast host Arjun Basu.
open.substack.com
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke proposes disenfranchising many Canadians, including those on a government pension. rabble.ca/economy/shop...
Shopify CEO publicly supports full concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy
Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke proposes disenfranchising many Canadians, including those on a government pension.
rabble.ca
The moment they step out of their media bubble it incites "civil war." So the moment they are confronted with "reality" or the "truth." Or "other media."
WIRED@wired.com · last wk.Donald Trump's base has been increasingly spilt. Laura Loomer's sudden embrace of Ukraine has only widened that divide. www.wired.com/story/laura-...
This is really good from @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social I always say GDP doesn't measure wealth and results. It just measures money.
Enshittification Relies on Broken Economic Math
Pay no attention to the externalities behind the curtain.
open.substack.com
Well, someone's cashing in, at least. And will no regrets ever. Right?
In China, people are renting out their faces to AI
New platforms are paying people to license their likeness for AI-generated dramas and ads, creating a new marketplace for biometric identity.
restofworld.org
This war really is between a rock (in the head) and a hard place. Or, in the current discourse, Scylla and Charybdis.
Prisoners at Iran’s largest jail sew lips shut in hunger strike as executions soar
At least 1,500 protest after six men on drug-related charges put in solitary confinement before possible execution
theguardian.com
Yes. And video is making them worse. (I host a pod) www.compactmag.com/article/how-...
How Podcasts Ruined America
“I was just speculating for a podcast. I had no personal information. I was just speculating for a podcast.” This was the testimony of Howard Lutnick, the sitting Secretary of Commerce, to the House O...
compactmag.com
