I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TODAY (Feb 15) for a virtual event with YANIS VAROUFAKIS, and on MONDAY (Feb 17) for an event at KEPLER'S in MENLO PARK with CHARLIE JANE ANDERS. More tour dates here.
It's Saturday and I'm on a book tour, and the world is in chaos, and there are more links to write about than I could fit in to this week's newsletter, so time for a cubic linkdump, the 27th such:
https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
Let's start with the best thing I saw all week: a 3D-printed, spring-loaded, clockwork chess pawn that uses a magnet to sense when it has reached the end of the board and SPROING! turns into a queen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSOnnle3zbA
The whole video is a fascinating account of the design process, from idea to prototype to finished item, but if you're impatient and want to skip right to the eyeball kick, it's at 12:27-12:35. And if you want to print your own, the files are $12 (cheap!):
Regrettably, not every tech project is a good one. This week, Google abandoned its AI ethics pledge. Unlike most AI ethics pledge, which are full of nonsense about not accidentally creating a vengeful god that turns the human race into paperclips, Google's AI pledge was actually very important, in that the company promised not to make AI that violates human rights, international law, or privacy. There comes a point where harping on Google's abandoned "don't be evil" motto can feel a little hacky, but in this case, I'll make an exception. My EFF colleague Matthew Guariglia tears Google a much-deserved new AIhole over this latest heel turn:
Not all bad technology is evil. Some of it is merely very, very stupid. How stupid? Check out Thom Dunn's Wirecutter review of The Heatbit Trio, a space-heater that uses Bitcoin-mining GPUs to generate some of its heat, very slightly offsetting the cost of warming your room – but at a rate that would take decades to recoup the $700 price-tag. Thom got some spicy quotes from Molly White for this one – possibly the first time she's been cited in a home appliance review:
Staying with crypto freaks for a moment here, Adam Levitin dissects the cryptocurrency "industry"'s latest chorus of aggrieved whining over "debanking":
As Levitin writes, banks aren't kicking cryptocurrency "companies" off their books because the government wants to punish them. Banks have a very good reason to want to avoid doing business with high-dollar scams that have highly correlated implosions, which is to say, times when everyone wants their money back from the cryptocurrency "company" the bank is handling charges for. For a longer explanation that gets into the nitty gritty of bank supervision, check out Patio11's excellent, detailed explainer:
As all the real heads know, "crypto means cryptography," and cryptographers continue to contrive privacy marvels. This week, Kagi – the best search engine, a million times better than Google – released a Privacy Pass authentication plugin, which lets you login to Kagi and run searches without Kagi being able to connect any of the searches you make with your account:
https://blog.kagi.com/kagi-privacy-pass
As an sf/crime writer who sometimes (often) searches for information on committing ghastly crimes and 'orrible murders, the fact that my favorite search engine will be technically incapable of tying those searches to my identity is quite a relief. Read my review of Kagi here:
If you're one of those marvel-contriving hackers, cryptographers, security researchers or tinkerers, you should really consider attending this summer's Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE), 2600 Magazine's (now) annual (formerly biennial) hacker con. They've just posted their CFP – get those submission in!
https://www.hope.net/cfp-talks.html
Well, I have to post this and get ready for this morning's virtual book tour event with Yanis Varoufakis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkIDep7Z4LM
But before I go, one more link: Kevin Steele's 2005 essay on Hypercard, "When Multimedia Was Black & White," an absolute classic, and a beautiful meditation on the art and promise of early hypertext:
I've known Kevin for most of my life, long before he helped found Mackerel, the pioneering Toronto multimedia company. Long after Mackerel, Kevin went on making wonderful things. In 2023, he published a monumental act of portraiture – a "sequential art" time-series of panoramas of Toronto's hip, ever-changing Queen Street West strip:
Comparing Kevin's more recent work with that lovely old essay reveals deep correspondences and the progress of a unique and creative soul.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Gun manufacturer pitches the "JR-15", a rifle for kids styled on the AR-15
The New Republic reports that at a recent gun industry trade show in Las Vegas, not far from the site of the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in US history, American gun manufacturer WEE1 Tactical introduced a new gun called the JR-15: The JR-15 is a .22 Long Rifle that functions like a modern sporting rifle, however and most importantly its small size, lightweight rugged polymer construction and ergonomics are geared towards smaller enthusiasts. — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/01/18/gun-manufacturer-pitches-the-jr-15-a-rifle-for-kids-styled-on-the-ar-15.html
This proved less than what I expected (an actual mix of Come out ye Black & Tans by The Wolfe Tones and Fuck tha police by NWA, which would be fucking AMAZING), but I'll do. @tuulikki
Thom Dunn - Come Out, Ye Black and Tans (Fuck The Police)
I was born on a Dublin street, where the royal drums did beat
And those loving English feet, they'd walk all over us
And every single night, when me da would came home tight
He'd invite the neighbours out with this fine chorus
Fuck the police
Comin' straight from the underground
A young mick's got it bad in this town
Because Tans have authority to kill the majority
Well fuck that shit, 'cause I ain't the one
For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun
To be beatin' on, and thrown in jail
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell
Come out ye Black and Tans, come on and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lakes of Killashandra
Come tell us how you slew them poor Arabs two by two
Like the Zulu, they had spears and bows and arrows
How you bravely you faced one with your 16-pounder gun
Till you frightened them poor natives to the marrow
Come let us hear you tell how you slandered great Parnell
When you threw him well and truly persecuted
Where are the sneers and jeers that you bravely let us hear
When our leaders of '16 were executed?
Come out ye Black and Tans, come on and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lakes of Killashandra
The time is coming fast and I think those days are near
When each yeoman, he will run before us
And if there be a need, then our kids wil sing, "Godspeed!"
With a verse or two of Stephen Behan's chorus
Fuck the police
Comin' straight from the underground
A young mick's got it bad in this town
Because Tans have authority to kill the majority
Well fuck that shit, 'cause I ain't the one
For a punk motherfucker with a badge and a gun
To be beatin' on, and thrown in jail
We can go toe to toe in the middle of a cell
Come out ye Black and Tans, come on and fight me like a man
Show your wives how you won medals down in Flanders
Tell them how the IRA made you run like hell away
From the green and lovely lakes of Killashandra
Seriously huge-ass toad found in Australia
From SkyNews: Ranger Kylee Gray said her team were "blown away" by the "monster" cane toad which weighed 2.7kg and is believed to be female. She told the Australian Broadcasting Corp it was by far the largest toad she had encountered and said it looked "almost like a football with legs". — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/01/23/seriously-huge-ass-toad-found-in-australia.html
Rabbi gives a sermon written by AI
Via Jerusalem Post: New York Senior Rabbi Josh Franklin, of the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, surprised his congregation earlier this week by delivering a sermon written entirely by Artificial Intelligence (AI.) The rabbi used the ChatGPT chatbot, a free-to-access AI program launched in November of last year. — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/01/30/rabbi-gives-a-sermon-written-by-ai.html
The cryptid complications of Wikipedia's editing policies
This is (apparently) a great war simmering between Wikipedia editors and cryptid hunters. Cryptid enthusiasts, such as those who haunt r/Cryptozoology, accuse the open-source information website of being biased against their beloved beasts, dismissing such things as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster with pejorative descriptors of "pseudoscience" (Or, worse — "folklore"). — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/02/22/the-cryptid-complications-of-wikipedias-editing-policies.html
This bean-less coffee sounds surprisingly good
Minus is a new company producing bean-less coffee — that is to say, a caffeinated beverage that tastes like coffee, while sidestepping all of the agricultural and roasting processes, and the waste that results from them. As the company explains on its website: Coffee production is double trouble. — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/02/24/this-bean-less-coffee-sounds-surprisingly-good.html
An interview with KC Green, who made the "This Is Fine" cartoon
I normally try to be attentive to the actual creative forces behind the meme'd cartoons that dominate our social media lives. But I'll be honest: I hadn't thought much about the "This is fine" meme. It became so ubiquitous during the Trump era that it just sort of felt as natural as air, a perfect encapsulation of an era that spawned itself fully mature from the head of Zeus. — Read the rest
https://boingboing.net/2023/01/21/an-interview-with-kc-green-who-made-the-this-is-fine-cartoon.html
