Want to float the San Juan together? Join me on Glen Canyon Institute’s 2026 Membership trip! glencanyon.org/product/2026...

Trump has expanded his attacks upon the “liberal” media by going after popular hosts and comedians. After hinting that they helped take down Colbert, his people are growing overconfident and threatening other shows. Enter South Park—then sit back and enjoy what happens next.My write-up linked below.

I don't buy into the AGI hype, but also, the downplaying of LLMs that says they're "just next-word prediction machines" doesn't seem to capture what they're capable of.

Simon Willison@simonwillison.net · last yr.

Surprising result from OpenAI: one of their research models achieved a gold medal performance in this year's International Mathematical Olympiad /without/ using tools Just a classic next-token-predicting LLM with a bunch of reinforcement learning layered on top simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/19/...

they tried to "un-woke a robot and it went full nazi" is something out of a 30 Rock TV show

Back in the beyond

Hitler used tariffs to “liberate” Germany from a globalized world order—careening the economy backwards, Timothy W. Ryback writes.

Hitler’s Terrible Tariffs

By seeking to “liberate” Germans from a globalized world order, the Nazi government sent the national economy careening backwards.

bit.ly

NEW from me: A whistleblower says DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data...and then someone posted a threatening letter to his door. www.npr.org/2025/04/15/n...

A whistleblower's disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data

A whistleblower tells Congress and NPR that DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data and hid its tracks. "None of that ... information should ever leave the agency," said a former NLRB official.

npr.org

Jon Stewart admits folks here were right & he wasn't: "I did not think he would get this authoritarian this fast. I really didn't. I'm sorry. Who could have known? Maybe if someone out there had yelled at me on Bluesky about this, I would have known. But no one did. Except every day. In all caps."

LateNighter@latenightercom.bsky.social · last yr.

Jon Stewart has a message for his Bluesky critics: 'My bad'

Why isn’t all journalism like Kyle Clark?

Kyle Clark@kylec.bsky.social · last yr.

VIEWER FEEDBACK: What are we seeing? Answer: President Trump keeping his campaign promise to use the justice system to reward his allies and punish his perceived rivals.

I will forever think it is not ready and keep futzing 😁 but heck I need to push this thing live. Had some fun over the last couple of days building this with @11ty.dev - Contribute your TechCat 😻 #caturday techcats.netlify.app

TechCats

The cats of people who make websites.

techcats.netlify.app

Oh boy, I needed this trip more than I care to admit. I need more AFK time. We slipped out for an early spring trip to a remote corner of Utah for several days of desert bliss.

Dude wake up they just RIF’d like half the Department of Education because y’all aren’t doing shit to stop them no matter whether the government is open or shut. Either fight for this country, even when the odds look grim, or resign. We have no need of summer soldiers.

Travis@coloradotravis.bsky.social · last yr.

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country." — Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

18F, the federal government’s technology shop, was demolished by Musk’s team shortly after midnight. It was a cost-recoverable org, charging agencies for their expertise, using a consulting model. Its cost to government was negligible, its benefits huge. My team there once saved DoD $500 billion.

What the actual fuck?! America, it’s time to rise. When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty!

They don't want to teach history so they can repeat it.

If you voted for Trump and cannot look at what’s happening and say “whups I fucked up” by now, I’m not sure I wanna hear your opinion on any topic. That level of denial is a global epistemic toxin.

You cannot fire so many people and shutter so many agencies and services and not expect things to start to go very bad very quickly. Our job is to highlight not only the chaos and cruelty of the firings, but also the devastating consequences. The public must turn on this madness and soon.

Thank god there's finally some useful technology. Yi-Fei Chen, aTaiwanese designer, has built a beautiful gun that collects and freezes tears, so you can shoot them at the person who caused them

This. The “I bought it before I knew he was as asshole” bumper sticker is not enough; you’re still a supporter. Selling absolutely is a form of advocacy, because flooding the market impacts price. Real patriots sell their Teslas.

e.w. niedermeyer@niedermeyer.online · last yr.

Elon Musk is celebrating the immiseration and death of the most vulnerable members of society. This is what your Tesla symbolically represents, and materially supports... not just from the upfront price, but through charging, repairs, etc. What price are you willing to pay to not be complicit?

we have moved rapidly from “this loser never would’ve made it through the background check for a security clearance” to “this guy’s laptop is a crime scene”

It feels pretty good watching dunking on these chuckleheads on their own platforms. Not like good enough to justify the slide into oligarchic kleptocracy but you know — water from a stone and all that.

Jules Suzdaltsev@jules.su · 2y ago

This year's Winter Tech Forum is shaping up! www.wintertechforum.com

Winter Tech Forum: A Self-Organizing Open Spaces Conference & Retreat, March 3-7 2025 in Crested Butte, Colorado

A Self-Organizing Open Spaces Conference & Retreat

wintertechforum.com

They've begun their attacks on the US Digital Service and 18F — the true, effective public servants using technology to make government more effective & efficient. The folks who let you instantly and easily file your taxes online, for free. Who let veterans get the services they earned at VA.gov.

VA.gov Home | Veterans Affairs

Welcome to the official website of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Discover, apply for, and manage your VA benefits and care.

va.gov

Today I honor Martin Luther King’s eloquence, wisdom and bravery. I see you Dr. King — your fire will never diminish. Your light will never ever be put out.

Complex developer “productivity” metrics create an investment opportunity—hire folks who score poorly but are actually really good.

I too wish we could make more people care medium.com/the-generato...

I Don’t Know How To Make You Care What ChatGPT Is Quietly Doing

Over half of the internet is now AI generated text

medium.com

It's 2025 and everything sucks and everyone is job hunting, please enjoy this slowly unfolding thread of tech jobs at places that aren't making the world worse. If you're hiring at not-evil (or even minimally evil) orgs, please reply w your tech jobs too?

My team is hiring #getfedihired https://phpc.social/@grmpyprogrammer/113669211287806469