James Tinged Words

This is such an important and under-appreciated point. More stories from MN because we just have more journalists who live here and know their communities

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today "I am not white, as you can see," Julie Le — a government lawyer — told a federal judge on Tuesday. "And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too ..."

NEW: The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today.

"I am not white, as you can see," Julie Le — a government lawyer — told a federal judge on Tuesday. "And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too ..."

Law Dork:

Up until 1985, women made up half the PC market, as you'd expect. Girls played as many video games as boys, went on to make computer things at about the same rate.

AI-generated data contamination erodes pathological variability and diagnostic reliability Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly populating medical records with synthetic content, creating a feedback loop where future models are increasingly at risk of training on uncurated AI ...

"AI is rapidly populating medical records with synthetic content, creating a feedback loop [that] drives a rapid erosion of pathological variability and diagnostic reliability...this renders AI generated documentation clinically useless after just two generations" www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Real estate agents in Australia using apps that leave millions of lease documents at risk, digital researcher says Exclusive: ‘This is a blatant and disturbing disregard for the law and for people’s security,’ digital rights advocate says

if you're a renter and have had to use an online application platform or a property management app - now's a great time to reach out to your property manager, link them this article, and ask them what they're doing to make sure that the tech they're using is keeping your data secure

OpenClaw is designed to perform actions in the system and services (files, browser, terminal, calendars, instant messengers), so a configuration error or prompt injection vulnerability can translate into real actions on user accounts and data.

First published in Craccum explains some things

Why there’s no European Google? Why there’s no European Google? par Ploum - Lionel Dricot.

This article is a very useful reframing of the tired “Europe falling behind in tech” whinge.

Europe has actually build the foundations for socially useful tech, for decades.

What it has not done is attempt to create Empires by extracting cash from that work.

ploum.net/2026-01-22-w...

Cairn Press The official website for the Cairn Press imprint.

As of tomorrow, Cairn Press is live!

Bring me your modules, your supplements, your hacks - as long as they are Cairn adjacent, I'll take consider it!

More soon.

cairnpress.ink

Hey chat is it good when your security audit recommends this?

Appreciated!

I would like to gently request that AI pharmacy bots stop trying to kill my mother

It's been a tumultuous week for researchers trying to fact check the many competing claims being made – about the pros and cons of children's social media use, and about whether bans would make a difference. There is lots of evidence for both the pros and the cons, which is why many researchers do not favour a simple ban. There is no evidence that bans work to make children's lives better, which is why many researchers prefer evidence-based alternatives. For children's organisations, too, it's been challenging – most have come out firmly against a ban, on the grounds that bans are too crude, restricting children from the benefits of online participation – especially for more vulnerable or marginalised children – while potentially pushing children to the darker edges of the internet – again, especially for more vulnerable or marginalised children.

The UK shouldn't rush to a social media ban for children under 16 blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp... by @sonialivingstone.bsky.social

#socialmediaban #censorship #openweb #techpolicy #childrights

Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw The tech giant said providing encryption keys was a standard response to a court order. But companies like Apple and Meta set up their systems so such a privacy violation isn’t possible.

Microsoft is handing over Bitlocker keys to law enforcement. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

OAIC calls on federal agencies to be transparent on ADM use To build trust.

The Australian Office of the Information Commissioner (OAIC) says that lack of disclosure around use of automated decision-making (ADM) systems across government agencies is putting trust in the technology and the public service at risk www.itnews.com.au/news/oaic-ca...

Last term I tried an experiment: I walked into my Tech and Design Ethics class, admitted that I had *no idea* what to do about ChatGPT - so I would let them figure it out.

As in: their first project was to decide and write the ChatGPT policy for the class.

Here's what happened:

#TechRadar UK government targets VPNs in new online safety consultation as Lords vote for ban https://techrad.ar/H3uf #VPNPrivacy&Security #VPN

Dr Kareem Carr man: i wish to publish @kareem_carr Jan 21 reviewer 2: your paper is no good man: i'll do anything to improve reviewer 2: it's simple. you must read the work of the great scientist Pagliarini man: *bursts into tears* but i am Pagliarini Andre Pagliarini @apagliar Jan 21 a first: in rejecting an article I submitted to a journal, reviewer 2 noted I failed to engage the work of one Andre Pagliarini Jan 21, 2026 • 3:47 PM UTC

I just thought everyone should see this

One of the things I’m really struggling with about what’s going on in Minnesota is that if you describe what’s going on in plain, factual ways to someone who’s not paying close attention you sound completely, bugfuck crazy

“Kids of experiences” 🙈😆

Identity is complicated and there’s things to unpack here...

But I think basically this means more people having the same kids of experiences I did in mid decile central Auckland schools in the 1990s?

We’ve done diversity for decades, it’s just more familiar for some of us.

This is what being in your 40s is like

You best believe I was tempted to enter the no return of twisty replies to “Is this sarcasm” tho. Thankfully my better nature won this time 😅

Yep!

Statistics. State… istics?
Like… the state’s way of seeing?
Wonder if anyone ever wrote about that.

It’s the power of an absolute monarch eh

"vast majority of enforcement authorities are under-resourced, overstretched, & politically-constrained" so legislation too often "remains an empty vessel"