An excellent article; well-crafted and enlightening. I found the comment by Farid, an expert who investigates deepfakes, compelling: “The companies, he says, “will burn the fucking place to the ground.” A strong, if not surprising, sentiment made by an expert in the field.

Kai Kupferschmidt@kakape.bsky.social · 3mo ago

How are AI images and videos changing the world we live in? How can we even still tell what is real and what is not? In an effort to find out, I visited Hany Farid, „sort of the dean of digital forensics“, for a couple of days in Berkeley. It was eye-opening. My story in @science.org 🧪

“All of the speculation and hype around A.I. is hiding the fact that the technology isn’t just large language models or agents or data centers. It is the backbone of a superstructure that merges regressive politics with unchecked economic power in the guise of technological innovation.”

Opinion | Want to Fight Back Against Big Tech? Start Here. (Gift Article)

A.I. is a political theory. And it is gobbling up our democracy.

nytimes.com

Das können wir nur mit eurer Unterstützung. Wenn ihr Pandemia mögt und wollt, dass wir solche Recherchen weitermachen können, unterstützt uns bei Steady: steady.page/de/pandemia/...

Pandemia +

Ein Podcast von Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt und Kai Kupferschmidt.

steady.page

Wir wollen bei Ebola weiter dranbleiben, und zwar nicht nur, solange es gerade Schlagzeilen gibt. Genau dafür machen wir Pandemia: um Ausbrüche, Krankheiten und die Menschen dahinter über längere Zeit zu verfolgen und verständlich zu erzählen.

Bislang gibt es im Kongo 3748 bestätigte Fälle und 1657 Tote und es gibt keine Anzeichen, dass sich die Ausbreitung verlangsamt. insp.cd/sitrep-n079-...

Und wir haben über unser Verhältnis zu dieser Krankheit gesprochen, zu den Menschen im Ausbruchsgebiet und den Helfern, die dort ihr Leben riskieren.
 podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/p...

Ebola | Die Angst der Anderen

Podcast-Folge · Pandemia · 7. Juni · 56 Min.

podcasts.apple.com

Der Ebola-Ausbruch in der Demokratischen Republik Kongo ist inzwischen der zweitgrößte, den die Welt je gesehen hat. Was passiert da? Und warum ist dieser Ausbruch anders als viele die es vorher gab? Wir haben in den letzten Wochen genau darüber berichtet: podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/p... 🧪

Ebola | Beim 17. Mal ist alles anders

Podcast Episode · Pandemia · 29 May · 56min

podcasts.apple.com

Listening to Cory @doctorow.pluralistic.net always feels shocking, because he so clearly articulates an objective reality that is aggressively concealed by almost the entirety of the media industry, not least the financial press.

Frank Mc Girr@vhsteacher.com · 2d ago

Excellent long-form interview about AI. With Jon Stewart and @doctorow.pluralistic.net the writer and activist who coined the term "enshittification"—the process by which digital platforms gradually become worse for users as they prioritize profits and business interests. youtu.be/-dAIJRjb-Bw

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 ago

Another 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...

It's been two and a half months since the Ebola outbreak in the DRC was declared and it is now the biggest the country has ever experienced and the second largest the world has ever seen. Dozens of cases continue to be reported each day across three separate provinces. 🧪 insp.cd/sitrep-n077-...

This is why diagnostics matter in global health, not just medicines and vaccines!! Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected @kakape.bsky.social @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected

A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says

science.org

The #Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in NE DRC was likely underway for months before it was formally detected in mid-May. That's often the way with Ebola outbreaks, but the scale of the missed cases seems ... extraordinary. Terrific reporting by @kakape.bsky.social. www.science.org/content/arti...

EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected

A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says

science.org

Ebola may have been spreading for months in the DRC before anyone recognized it. A new reconstruction suggests the outbreak was already widespread in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu by January. It wasn’t officially declared until 15 May. Why did no-one raise the alarm? My story for @science.org 🧪

EXCLUSIVE: Congo’s Ebola epidemic started at least 4 months before it was detected

A remote mining town gripped by fear saw hundreds of suspected cases before the government declared an outbreak, report says

science.org

102 new Ebola cases and 45 deaths reported by DRC over past 24 hours. For context: Many Ebola outbreaks in the past have remained small. These numbers mean the DRC has reported more cases overnight than were reported IN TOTAL during each of about two dozen smaller Ebola outbreaks. 🧪

Ebola outbreak in the DRC: 2973 confirmed cases (+68) incl. 1309 deaths (+40) The outbreak has now touched 48 health zones across 5 provinces insp.cd/sitrep-n070-...

About halfway through listening to „Careless People“ and honestly what it reminds me of more than anything is Veep.

Another massive jump in Ebola cases in DRC (reflecting new cases as well as "data harmonization"). Now 2,905 cases including 1,269 deaths. I find it harder every day to square the size and speed of spread of this outbreak with the lack of attention it is getting. insp.cd/sitrep-n069-...

“Seven days after the girl’s medical team infused trillions of viruses carrying the recipe for the base editor into her spinal fluid, she died of a severe immune reaction linked to the therapy…” This, in @science.org, is an important and tragic story. (It’s also an incredibly well reported one.) 🧪

Exclusive: Death of girl in Chinese gene-editing trial was never made public

Parents want accountability after study went disastrously wrong, Science and Retraction Watch investigation reveals

science.org

The recorded death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the DRC is about to cross 1,000 cases. In reality there have likely been a lot more deaths already. Many new cases appear to have no link to known cases, suggesting much of the spread is still happening in the dark.

Naturkeimemuseum? 🤓🧪

Pandemia@pandemia.bsky.social · 2w ago

Falls ihr Abos nicht mögt, könnt ihr uns auch ganz einfach einmalig direkt unterstützen. Wir freuen uns über jede Spende, ob genug für einen Museumsbesuch oder gleich einen Museumsbau (Deutsches Hysterisches Museum? Hamburger Endbahnhof? wir hätten da ein paar Ideen). www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/...

Die Folge ist jetzt für alle hier: podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/p... Und wer uns helfen mag, den Podcast weiter zu produzieren (und Folgen früher und werbefrei zu bekommen und zweimal im Jahr mit uns zu quatschen), der kann uns hier mit einem Abo unterstützen: steady.page/de/pandemia/...

Uralte Viren | Masern, Mumien und Museen

Podcast Episode · Pandemia · 20 July · 57min

podcasts.apple.com

1912 stirbt ein zweijähriges Mädchen in Berlin an den Masern. Ihre Lunge wird konserviert, beschriftet und dann über 100 Jahre lang vergessen. Bis Forscher sie wiederfinden und daraus ein uraltes Masernvirus sequenzieren. Eine neue Folge Pandemia zu Museen, Mumien und den Ursprüngen der Masern. 🧪

Yesterday marked two months since the DRC declared the ongoing Ebola outbreak, @drtedros.who.int says in presser. "It's now the third largest Ebola outbreak on record, and in the past months, it has expanded faster than any previous outbreak."

The Ebola outbreak in the DRC keeps growing at a shocking pace. We're already close to 2000 confirmed cases. Right now: 1926 confirmed cases (incl. 53 new cases in the last 24 hours) 702 of these have died insp.cd/sitrep-n058-...

NEU: Mehr als 100 zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen und Medien haben soeben einen gemeinsamen Offenen Brief an die Bundesregierung veröffentlicht, um das Informationsfreiheitsgesetz zu retten. Das Netzwerk Recherche gehört zu den Initiatoren. Warum? 1/4

Offener Brief: „Hände weg vom IFG!“ - Netzwerk Recherche

In einem offenen Brief an die Bundesregierung ruft Netzwerk Recherche zusammen mit einem breiten Bündnis zum Schutz des Informationsfreiheitsgesetzes (IFG) auf.

netzwerkrecherche.org

Es klingt wie Science-Fiction: Man baut Fabriken, züchtet Millionen Fliegen, bestrahlt sie mit Gammastrahlen und wirft sie aus Flugzeugen ab - um eine Seuche auszurotten. Aber genau so wurde der Neuwelt-Schraubenwurm in Nord- und Mittelamerika besiegt. Jetzt ist der „Menschenfresser“ zurück. 🧪

The enshittification window is getting smaller and smaller.

Saeed Jones@theferocity.bsky.social · 4w ago

lol “Owners of Meta's AI glasses have been told they must pay a monthly fee if they want full access to a feature that was previously free.”

Apparently the Gila monster is pronounced 'HEE-la' - there's no G sound - which I find especially confusing in a biology context because hearing 'Gila monster' makes me think of HeLa cells gone rogue.

“It’s a really important step,” says Vasee Moorthy, who leads R&D blueprint work at WHO’s Office of the Chief Scientist. “It’s hope for the community.” I wrote about the first ever clinical trial to test drugs against Bundibugyo, that started today. 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...

First-ever treatment trial for Ebola Bundibugyo kicks off in the Congo

Scientists will test an antiviral drug and an antibody cocktail designed to tame the burgeoning outbreak

science.org