So Zillow knows when you buy a house, but it _keeps sending you alerts_ for your saved queries. I'm not that much of a big wheel, but surprisingly house hunting, which should be miserable, was ... addictive? Like I had a map, a spreadsheet, ready to pounce on open houses. Still chasing that high!

If I had a terminal illness, my My Make A Wish request would be to sit in on an editorial meeting at this magazine www.theatlantic.com/family/2026/...

EA officially goes private tonight, meaning: - EA will no longer trade on the NASDAQ for the first time in 36 years - All stockholders of EA (including many employees) will receive $210/share - EA will take on $18 billion (!) in debt, putting it on the hook to pay ~$1.8 billion/year in interest

Why commit a sin against literature (Pratchett), or economics (pointing out boots are the wrong analogy for this), when you can commit a sin against the very idea of beauty: I've worn crocs since 2008. Each pair lasts about a year and a half and I pay $20-ish dollars.

Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 19h ago

I don’t care about Sam Vimes! I’m saying that as a description of actual dilemmas faced by consumers, “boots theory” fails! I’m sure it works great in literary context but in real life you usually can’t save money by buying more expensive stuff. It’s a common idea but not often true.

Big day for Ray Bradbury's "And There Will Come Soft Rains" media (at least for me): Here's Leonard Nimoy narrating.

Whoa.

Erika Hall@erikahall.bsky.social · yesterday

There Will Come Soft Rains The most upsetting interpretation. Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=OumN...

Sinners In the Hands of Abandonware

hypoallergenic bobcat alternative@noghiri.bsky.social · yesterday

alternate synthesis: the bugs are because our universe was created as a 7 day roguelike game jam challenge and as such it's actually very impressive how well everything works

"Would you like to refer anyone else to Xfinity?" "I know this call is being recorded, and it my hope that this is one day subpoenaed as part of a Congressional investigation. This company as engaging in a monopolistic conspiracy against the public good its executives should be prosecuted."

I cancelled my comcast/xfinity service last month, and just saw a bill for the *next* month. I swear to every god anyone holds dear I will sue them into oblivion if that's what it takes. They are the worst.

this is not true. there was no conspiracy. it didn't matter whether the streetcars were publicly owned (seattle, detroit) or private (los angeles, atlanta). a thread (because i wrote a whole-ass book on this): 1/?

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 3d ago

Is everyone aware of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy? In the mid-20th century, auto and oil interests bought up electric streetcar systems across the US and systematically replaced them with bus routes and paved roads, funneling commuters toward private cars.

Me: The new agent harness is great. You feed your tokens into the machine. Then you run simulations which, if successful, produces tickets. If they fail you have to buy more tokens and keep running the sims. Once you have enough tickets you can redeem them Boss: are you at dave & busters, yes or no

Should you have to prove your age before you can read or speak online? KOSA would pressure online services to build age verification systems that put everyone's privacy at risk. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

The Senate Should Reject KOSA's Privacy Risks

The Senate Commerce Committee is once again considering legislation that would dramatically expand age verification, and undermine privacy for everyone. Alongside the SCREEN Act, the CHATBOT Act, and

eff.org

New: We found 50 cops who misused Flock cameras and other license-plate readers for personal purposes, often to spy on their girlfriends or ex-wives. He "watched every single move I made. ... Who do you turn the chief of police in to?" wapo.st/3S6rTuo

She left her ex. He secretly tracked her through a network of policing cameras.

Flock’s array of license-plate cameras was built to fight crime. But at least 50 law enforcement officers were charged with or accused of misusing it and other systems.

wapo.st

Still can’t over the fact that the president of the United States just told an entire state to pound sand after getting cyberattacked by a foreign adversary because they didn’t vote for him and it was treated like a Tuesday lol

Really doesn’t bode well that a bunch of people on here and Twitter are looking at the latest Spanish-Moroccan border flare up and going “Israel must be secretly orchestrating this”

Cherise Doyley was in her 12th hour of contractions at the hospital when a tablet was brought to her bedside. On the screen was a Zoom call with a judge and several lawyers and doctors. She was in court, a nurse told her. The reason? For failing to agree to a C-section. (Published March)

She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital. Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section.

A virtual court hearing from a pregnant mother’s hospital bed shows what forced medical treatment can look like.

propublica.org

1/ Initial reactions after some hours with this groundbreaking result proving the NP-hardness of poly-approx CVP/NCP: It is most likely correct, but more importantly, it is original, elegant, and beautiful! (Also: it is easy to improve, quantitatively.) openai.com/index/ten-ad...

Ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science

OpenAI shares new results on long-standing open problems in mathematics and theoretical computer science, including advances in geometry, cryptography, and complexity.

openai.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mhZ...

Time is a flat circle - True Detective (HD)

YouTube video by Sinan Şahin

youtube.com

Yashar Ali 🐘@yasharali.bsky.social · 4d ago

1. BREAKING President Trump says the United States is holding off on significant military action in Iran because the Islamic Republic and other Middle Eastern countries have asked for a pause so that a deal can get done.

This article is hilarious. First, panic over a reseller buying used books for destructive scanning by AI companies because they must be rare books, but turns out none are particularly rare, booksellers are happy to get rid of them, and the reseller has nothing to do with AI cos or digitization

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 4d ago

‘More than just objects’: Australian book sellers raise alarm over ‘horrific’ destruction of rare titles to feed AI

I spent a week doing non-stop packing for a move and finished binging the first 2-3 years of Maintenance Phase. Congrats @michaelhobbes.bsky.social and @yrfatfriend.bsky.social your podcast is on my list of 'audio that can produce psychic damage'. Great (?) work.

on the right, "bravery" is when you're willing to be criticized by liberals, even if the position you're taking is fully embraced by the federal government and half the states.

The Athletic@theathletic.com · 4d ago

Speaking for the first time since ralliers began assembling in support of her stance against transgender participation in women’s sports, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said this was an opportunity for the WNBA to uphold its values of diversity and inclusion. nyti.ms/4fHr4Qn

Trump having a normal one today

It was inevitable that reactionary centrists would turn against harm reduction and call for a return to mass incarceration

The Cities That Said Yes to Drugs

Policies that gave addicts clean needles and places to use drugs were intended to reduce harm. They created a “zombie apocalypse.”

theatlantic.com

Hard to see well-meaning people who think it's anything *but* this. If it helps, it is also a tool for powerful incumbents/monopolists to snuff out competition who can't afford the tools to enforce this.

Mike Stabile@mikestabile.bsky.social · 7d ago

The firestorm of age-verification laws have done almost nothing to prevent minors from accessing porn online. What they have done is give the state a powerful tool to harass speech they don't like by declaring it pornographic or "harmful to minors."

ANTHROPIC: Our son loves humanity and for the low price of trillions and trillions of dollars will usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity! OPENAI: Our horrible oafish son is hacking web sites without our permission. ANTHROPIC: (eyes narrowing) Our son is also evil

As expected, the "escape" of the OpenAI agent was due to poor security practices by OpenAI not by some "super agent" www.wired.com/story/openai... It's like saying, "The fire exhibited super intelligence because it found a way around our one fireproof panel and then spread to the wood structure"

OpenAI’s Hacking Debacle Comes Down to Human Error

If the generative AI giant had followed well-known security best practices, it’s likely that its AI agent would never have escaped to the open internet and hacked multiple companies.

wired.com

"Blame Elon Musk and Donald Trump for the Out-of-Control Ebola Crisis" Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped lead the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, on the deadly consequences DOGE's dismantling of USAID has had, as Congo struggles to contain the virus.

Blame Elon Musk and Donald Trump for the Out-of-Control Ebola Crisis

Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped lead the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, writes about the deadly consequences DOGE's dismantling of USAID has had, as Congo struggles to contain the virus.

zeteo.com

And here is the same Alex Jones bullshit appearing in Rolling Stone. Unbelievably embarrassing to publish this.

Michael Hobbes@michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 6d ago

The conspiracy she’s referring to here is a Slack chat among scientists in 2020 where they went, “it could be a lab leak, let’s look into it!”

In case you are migrating between phones: GOOGLE HAS IMPLEMENTED A COOLDOWN ON YOUR PHONE BEING USED AS A GOOGLE ACCOUNT PASSKEY. it will generate a valid passkey, but refuse to accept it / demand you re-auth with a different passkey or a security key for first ~48 hours. this is a good feature.

we cannot allow this technology to fall into furry hands