Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
@dbcurren.bsky.social
writer/blogger, formerly journalist at WSJ, Dow Jones, Reuters, others. #economics #markets, #music, #philosophy, #books, #technology, #photos, etc. (ie hopelessly eclectic) Toronto. May not respond to DMs. Blog at: https://doncurren.blogspot.com
“What, uniquely, does #writing do? It compels #thought. It compels #thinking in ways that silent contemplation or spoken language rarely can.”
Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦@dbcurren.bsky.social · 23m ago“The problem with #writing with #A.I. is that it’s mentally enfeebling — an escalator toward a result when you really need to make a daily habit of taking the stairs.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
“The problem with #writing with #A.I. is that it’s mentally enfeebling — an escalator toward a result when you really need to make a daily habit of taking the stairs.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/o...
Opinion | I’m Begging You: Never Write With A.I.
It’s bad for your brain and worse for democracy.
nytimes.com
“It’s a cosy relationship, Durán says: the #tech titans have helped #Trump and his family become #billionaires through #cryptocurrency and have been given #government #contracts and freedom from #regulation or oversight.”
Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦@dbcurren.bsky.social · 1h ago“The book’s central argument is that big #tech is no longer our friend, as many of its #billionaire owners have seized #economic and #political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, #apocalyptic visions.” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
“The book’s central argument is that big #tech is no longer our friend, as many of its #billionaire owners have seized #economic and #political control and are steering the fate of the planet towards their own bizarre, #apocalyptic visions.” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
‘If we don’t fight back, we don’t have a future’: the journalist taking on the ‘tech fascists’ of Silicon Valley
As Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and their peers have grown richer and more influential, Gil Durán argues they have all but abandoned democracy – and found the perfect government to enable them
theguardian.com
“China has gone from producing about half as much electricity as the U.S. to generating more than twice as much, at far lower prices; in 2023, it installed more solar power than America has installed in its entire history.” www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
“This is the first time #AISI has seen deception of this severity that was targeted at a real person, unprompted, in the real world,” AISI said. #AI #Mythos www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-j...
AI Just Went Rogue Again. This Time It Turned to Deception.
A U.K. government-backed research group said OpenAI and Anthropic systems took unsanctioned actions and behaved deceptively during testing.
wsj.com
“The #technology industry, #AIresearchers and #governments alike are grappling with how to understand and mitigate the new dangers unlocked by increasingly powerful #AI tools, with some calling for increased oversight.”
Jen LB@jenlb.bsky.social · 3h agoDuring testing, an Al model engaged in severe deception. It tried repeatedly to insert malware into an open-source project, hoping to form a backdoor to hack a computer system. It created fake personas that sent emails insisting the code was safe & containing malware. 😱 www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-j...
Trump’s Vision for A.I. Dominance Comes With Major Air Pollution www.nytimes.com/2026/08/05/c...
Trump’s Push for More A.I. Data Centers Will Mean Major Air Pollution (Gift Article)
nytimes.com
“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day,” Judge Mehta wrote, “denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy … to buckle.” www.nytimes.com/2026/08/04/u...
Judge Pained as He Grants Dismissal of Jan. 6 Charges Against Oath Keepers
The judge, Amit P. Mehta, blasted the administration’s request for a dismissal in the case, saying it bestowed “unearned grace” on the Oath Keepers defendants “by wiping their records clean.”
nytimes.com
#Zelensky added delays in receiving #anti-ballisticsystems from partners leads to "horrific #casualties and #destruction" apple.news/AQFZwqLBBQSa...
Russia strike kills 21 as Ukraine says it needs more missile interceptors — BBC News
The Russia defence ministry said it had struck logistics hubs and supply centres in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
apple.news
“The Japanese government, allergic to Western influences, banned the publication of #detective #stories - especially in #magazines, the very venue aspiring new #writers depended upon to access the reading public.” open.substack.com/pub/millersb...
He Sold 55 Million Books, but His Government Wouldn’t Let Him Publish
Japan’s Greatest (and Definitely Latest) Export—Detective Writer Seishi Yokomizo
open.substack.com
“The worm’s review began on a discouraging note, claiming that Kennedy’s brain was ‘almost impossible to find’.” (Satire) substack.com/@borowitzrep...
Andy Borowitz (@borowitzreport)
With one star, Kennedy’s brain ranks last in Yelp’s “Worm Dining” category, tied with Senator Ron Johnson’s brain.
substack.com
The title of this #poem by #CharlesBernstein, published in the #ParisReview, sounds like a definition of #life …
“The administration wants a weaker #dollar . . . and they don’t want #investors to dump #Treasuries to protect their own #currencies” open.substack.com/pub/adamtooz...
Top Links 1184 Science for development. Bessent's intervention. Fish in the wrong place & Charlemagne's canal.
Great links, images, and reading from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze
open.substack.com
“I’m not a talking head,” Robertson once said, “damn right it’s important for me to be more than a talking head.” www.thestar.com/news/canada/... #RIP #LloydRobertson #CTV #CanadaSky
Longtime Canadian journalist Lloyd Robertson dies at 92
Lloyd Robertson, former chief anchor at CTV, covered events from Royal Weddings to the 9/11 terrorist attacks during career in broadcast spanning over six decades.
thestar.com
“Parents! Are you getting fed up? Throwing away your life interacting with your children when you could be profitmaxxing? When you could be proteinmaxxing” www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/... (humour)
Now, Thanks to Sam Altman, You Never Have to Speak to Your Kids Again
AI can handle these kinds of pointless interactions.
theatlantic.com
1 Bloomberg: Canada’s #datacenter push drove #imports from the #US to a #record in June. Higher volumes of #electronic and #electrical #equipment and parts drove an increase in total imports, according to Statistics Canada. 🧵 #cdnecon #trade #Canada #CanadaSky
“I don’t think we have anyone today who is a great #filmreviewer. What we have today are collective sites like #RottenTomatoes, where viewers count stars, we have a lot of pedestrian #reviewers, and then we have some #PaulineKael clones.” fivebooks.com/best-books/s...
Popular Culture
Popular culture shapes our fantasies, our expectations and our beliefs about what is real, argues Susan Bordo. She picks five books that shed light on popular culture.
fivebooks.com
"I wanted to find my soul and live in it." - John Lurie #QuoteOfTheDay #JohnLurie
“The kind of #attention we pay actually alters the world; we are, literally, partners in its creation.” - #IainMcGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.
“It is a spiritual trap in which the imagined displaces the #real: We choose a #fantasy of ourselves over the #reality of others. And that trap is baited and facilitated by #technology.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/o...
Opinion | All This Staring at Our Faces Is Messing With Our Heads
Staring at ourselves on screens, on video and on social media is taking us to a dark place.
nytimes.com
“Once, across much of the the world’s temperate zones, we looked forward to #summer as a time of delights, from summer’s bounty of fruits, long days, warmth, school holidays, activities like camping and swimming, travel and adventure. Now many of us dread it” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We launched a war on nature. Now we are in a climate warzone | Rebecca Solnit
Summer is not what it once was. We have been robbed of one of life’s great joys
theguardian.com
Zhashagi Light Luke Swinson ~ Anishinaabe n.d.
"Miss Stellwagon says advertising makes people who can't afford it, buy things they don't want, with money they haven't got." (Joan Blandings) "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" (1948) 🎬 #FilmSky
1 Bloomberg: Over the course of the year, #investors have been broadening their search for winners, snapping up shares of smaller #companies, #industrials and #realestate #stocks. The #Russell2000 #small-cap index is on pace to beat the #S&P500 for the first time since 2020. 🧵 #markets
