Lauren Kirchner
@lkirchner.bsky.social
Investigative reporter at Consumer Reports covering safety and health; previously covered tech and criminal justice at The Markup and ProPublica. Signal: @Lkirchner.44
Fascinating piece framing the promises of (and inevitability of) AI-fueled progress as a "mass corporate delusion" and "literal religious mania" www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
thenerve.news
Someone give me $25 million dollars and an offset press, please
ryan cooper@ryanlcooper.com · 2d agooh yeah the broader newspaper industry is turbo fucked. down ~80 percent since 1990
Wait, and this guy happens to be named Sullivan? This is too much
Inner City Press@innercitypress.bsky.social · 2w agoJudge: You didn't tell the judge that the subpoena was about reporters, about the New York Times? Sullivan: We did not. It was an oversight. Later we did legal research. Judge: Wouldn't it have been relevant to know there had been public reporting? A: Yes
Trump Station? A letter from DOT Secretary Duffy to congressional leaders yesterday makes clear, he intends to re-name Penn Station. Read it first in the New York Daily News.
Feds look to rename Penn Station, potentially for Trump
In a letter sent Wednesday to Senate leadership on several committees, Duffy lists “administration priorities” for the federal rebuilding of the nation’s busiest rail hub.
nydailynews.com
Dream internship alert! at @democracynow.org democracynow.hire.trakstar.com/jobs/fk0z7ki...
Archive Intern at Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! Internships are paid, 20-hour per week, temporary work placements to help students, people early in their careers and career changers gain entry-level skills and experience in the field...
democracynow.hire.trakstar.com
Old, genuine, unique media is being sacrificed by the pallet on the altar of the gods of fake media
Jason Koebler@jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 2w ago“The world's best AI training data is sitting on a shelf. Books represent curated, peer-reviewed, domain-specific human knowledge, structured in a way no web crawl can replicate. Dense, edited, authoritative." www.404media.co/ai-companies...
PSA for these strange orangey days: NYC is distributing free KN95 masks -- you can drop in any public library branch or any local police precinct! Map here: on.nyc.gov/freemask
Mask Distribution Sites - Google My Maps
In response to the wildfire smoke, free KN95 masks will be available at the listed locations.
on.nyc.gov
Is Consumer Reports ever first to the news? No, no we are not. But, are we....BEST? Maybe?? Thank you for this, @paris.nyc:
paris martineau@paris.nyc · 3w agohello i am here to tell you actually probably don't need to be panicking about the explosive diarrhea parasite a thread: www.consumerreports.org/health/food-...
Do you own a Black+Decker PowerCrush BL1230 blender? Did you contact its manufacturer, Spectrum Brands, after reading the Consumer Reports story about it? If so, what did they tell you, and how do you feel about it? Reply below.
Lead Detected in a Black+Decker Blender - Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports safety experts are urging the FDA to investigate.
consumerreports.org
“The U.S. has not done a great job in regulating these companies,” he said. “But it’s getting actively worse as we speak.” Seems to be a theme... www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/w...
Millions of Eye Drop Bottles Recalled Over Contamination Concerns
The prescription drops are used to reduce inflammation after surgery or to treat irritation.
nytimes.com
oh yeah can AI do this?? (sends a work email ending with “brest wishes”)
Instead of founding fathers let us aspire to be perennial midwives, helping always to deliver democracy anew. (The last line of Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone.)
It's horrifying to be in the early stages of an era where an abstraction with so much value (data) is being pillaged, all while the vast majority have yet to understand what is being taken. It's not a shiny rock, or a patch of fertile dirt, but a concept with fuzzy boundaries for most.
Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · last mo.After destroying the U.S. foreign aid system, the Trump administration is now demanding multiple African nations hand over their citizen's sensitive health care data in exchange for life-saving healthcare funding. This is the data colonialism nightmare a lot of us were worried about 10 years ago.
Just saw a commercial for "Pocket," an AI-enabled pocket recorder that provides bulleted summaries of conversations you've had throughout the day, and omg, why even have social skills anymore
The summer interns are heeeeree (the streets of midtown)! Overheard - Guy: I heard you’re on client relations next week Girl who appears to me to be about 13 years old: Yeah they literally told me I need to learn how to drink, haha Guy: Haha
“It is different because, for all its mashed-together brilliance, so little about this city is felt universally: It is rich and broke and Mets and Yankees and pitiless and bighearted and enormous and never smaller than it has seemed lately...”
Knicks Give Their City Something New: Impossible Joy
nytimes.com
Don't you dare fall in love with us (we are not a real person)
Natasha@nluepke.bsky.social · 2mo agoI think I love you, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
virginiamercury.com/2026/06/01/w...
What’s in the water? What we know and don’t know about data center water discharge in Virginia • Virginia Mercury
Louisa residents share concerns about water discharge from data centers into local creeks. Data is lacking to know if PFAS is present in that water.
virginiamercury.com
I loved, loved, loved the "Hacks" finale last night! The perfect end to a beautiful show.
An important one from my colleague Nicole Greenfield on AI data centers' growing demand on the grid & what it means for our electricity bills www.consumerreports.org/money/utilit...
Electric Bills Keep Rising. Are These Regulators Protecting You? - Consumer Reports
State public utility commissions are considering rate hikes that could cost ratepayers billions. The AI data center boom is partly to blame.
consumerreports.org
Our recent tests found high levels of lead in one component of certain Black & Decker PowerCrush BL1230 blenders. A report to the CPSC linked the product to elevated lead levels in a child. CR experts advise owners to stop using this model and contact Black & Decker for more info. #safetywarning
Lead Detected in a Black & Decker Blender - Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports safety experts are urging the FDA to investigate.
consumerreports.org
Did you see the news that these animal squeeze toys, sold in Walmart, have been recalled because they may contain asbestos? The same risk has led to 80+ recalls around the world over the past few months, though it's the first in the US - learn more here: www.consumerreports.org/babies-kids/...
As of Thursday, the US now has its first recall of this kind - Orb Funkee squeeze toys, sold at Walmart. The toys are filled with sand that may contain asbestos
Lauren Kirchner@lkirchner.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe 80+ recalls at this point include colored sand meant for sand-art bottles and "unity ceremonies," sand-painting kits, sand writing tablets, "dig" kits, "magic" sand, sand-filled squishy squeeze toys, and even live earthworm habitats. (None yet in the U.S.) www.consumerreports.org/babies-kids/...
