Mark Dowling

Permanent warfare as essential part of a wider regime-building process

Perplexity accused of scraping websites that explicitly blocked AI scraping | TechCrunch Internet giant Cloudflare says it detected Perplexity crawling and scraping websites, even after customers had added technical blocks telling Perplexity not to scrape their pages.

NEW: CloudFlare says it detected Perplexity scraping and crawling websites that explicitly block it from scraping them.

Based on customers' complaints and its own experiments, the company says Perplexity is using "stealth" bots and changing its bots "user agent" to circumvent restrictions.

Hahaha this guy ran for mayor of Toronto once and he’s too chicken to even visit the islands and the Eaton Centre, no wonder he lost

There should be a running public Google doc of the to-do list

Just to say that every age-verification is an identity verification.

This creates the long held, never-possible dream of surveillance agencies everywhere of a full, Govt-backed record of Internet habits linked to ID.

Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content Submit to biometric face scanning or risk your account being deleted, Spotify says, following the enactment of the UK's Online Safety Act.

Spotify is now instituting face scans and ID checks ... to listen to music.

Porn was only ever the excuse. The only thing that surprises me is how quickly the government surveillance mandate has spread to absolutely every service we use.

www.404media.co/spotify-uk-a...

MAGA Champion Who Said Trump Would Fight Child Predators Is Arrested on Charges of Being a Child Predator Scott Soucek, the husband of a prominent Wisconsin GOP operative, has been accused of possessing child pornography.

Well well well www.thedailybeast.com/maga-champio...

one of the most obvious lies imaginable (that wasn’t reported as such by our political press corps)

Difference for me between LD and SNW is that LD occurs post Voyager. They can do what they want and have limited impact.

SNW on the other hand is setting up a series of headaches for TOS, and this “year one” idea seems to make it clear they don’t have enough SNW episodes left to make things fit

Also - Mike McMahan is probably a strong choice to at least participate in any such effort given the joy he gave the fandom via Lower Decks

I don’t know if RDM has any interest in returning to Trek but he has his own sci-fi universes now in BSG and FAM, so if he didn’t want to deal with all the comes with getting back into Roddenberry’s, I think that’s reasonable.

There was an incident involving a certain man who set his eyes upon a certain woman and passion rose in his heart, to the point that he became deathly ill. And they came and asked doctors what was to be done with him. And the doctors said: He will have no cure until she engages in sexual intercourse with him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not engage in sexual intercourse with him. The doctors said: She should at least stand naked before him. The Sages said: Let him die, and she may not stand naked before him. The doctors suggested: The woman should at least converse with him behind a fence in a secluded area, so that he should derive a small amount of pleasure from the encounter. The Sages insisted: Let him die, and she may not converse with him behind a fence.

The old Jewish scholars got some stuff right on this issue.

As I said bsky.app/profile/mark...

This from a govt that banned LGBT material due to supposed concern for child protection

On April 30th, Josh Smith of Montana Knife Company said you won't have to worry about tariffs if you buy American.

In the video, he holds up an egg to represent the zero dollars you'll have to pay if you purchase his made-in-USA knives.

The amusing thing is that this push is happening at the same time the state files on Tony Blair’s push to bring in ID cards when he was PM are being released, showing the scheme as both hopelessly useless and deceptive and Blair as weirdly enthused by it contrary to all the evidence.

someone at a white house press briefing should ask why the president consistently refers to his black american critics as “low IQ”

University sidelines scientist who exposed toxic metals in Lake Maurepas The SELU scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in Lake Maurepas was abruptly removed from her research position without explanation.

A university scientist who discovered alarming levels of toxic chemicals in a lake in southeastern Louisiana was abruptly removed from her research position this week without explanation

Greenland left the EU though

see the thing is, we have as a society decided we hate children and parents

Chris Pine wearing a Covid-era mask, in shorts and a jacket, carrying a large bag with Skylight Books Los Angeles printed on it

Publishers gonna be calling Chris Pine’s agent to do emergency photoshoots in bookstores to try and mitigate the damage

August 1, 2025 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION Committee on Economic Statistics and Committee on Government Relations Statement from the American Economic Association on the Dismissal of the BLS Commissioner Leaders of the American Economic Association express their grave concern over the dismissal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) earlier today. The independence of the federal statistical agencies is essential to the proper functioning of a modern economy. Accurate, timely, and impartial statistics are the foundation upon which households, businesses, and policymakers make critical decisions. Undermining the independence or credibility of these agencies threatens the integrity of the information that markets, institutions, and the public rely on every day. Measuring the vast and dynamic U.S. economy in real time is inherently challenging. It is standard practice for statistical estimates to be revised as more complete and higher-quality data become available. These revisions reflect the commitment of statistical agencies to accuracy, transparency, and methodological rigor-not failure or bias. The BLS has long had a well-deserved reputation for professional excellence and nonpartisan integrity. Safeguarding this tradition is vital for the continued health of the U.S. economy and public trust in our institutions. We call upon elected officials to respect and preserve the independence of the nation's statistical infrastructure. Lawrence Katz President, American Economic Association Katharine Abraham President-Elect, American Economic Association Karen Dynan Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Economic Statistics Kenneth Troske Chair, American Economic Association Committee on Government Relations

Statement from the largest economics association about the BLS firing

As context: AEA approximately never makes such public statements

This is a big deal

Little wood box with books and a copy of The Onion

Putting @theonion.com print edition in my little free library because the world needs the info.

Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands The department creates a seemingly impossible new permitting criteria for renewable energy.

HUGE: The Trump administration will no longer permit any solar or wind projects on federal lands unless they produce more energy-per-acre than coal, gas or nuclear power plants.

Solar and wind literally produce less energy per acre, so simply this may just kill off any project on federal lands.

Interesting phrasing. I wonder if there's a more succinct way of saying "backlash against antiracism"

Air Marshals, reassigned from commercial flights, ‘serve sandwiches and check lice’ on ICE deportation flights | CNN Politics A lobby group that advocates for Air Marshals has sent the Department of Homeland Security a cease and desist letter to stop the reassignments.

According to two sources familiar with the matter and documents seen by CNN, highly trained Air Marshals are taking ICE assignments — some, willingly, others, under intense pressure from supervisors — where they are serving sandwiches and acting as flight security guards.

Some Asian people posted a photo of themselves having dinner. It reads: "Went to a fancy dinner in SF and everybody went to Harvard (or Stanford)" The next day, the followed up with a tweet that reads: "Almost all of us are Americans. FWIW, More of us are Americans than Asian."

Two quote tweets. The first has a racist drawing of Asian people and it says "I rent to fancy dinnah and everybody rent 2 Havah (or Stanfah)." The other shows Yale's Skulls and Bones society in the 1940s, where a bunch of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in suits are composed for a group photo. An Italian man writes: "This is what Ivy Leaguers are supposed to look like."

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Foreigners post stuff like this and then act surprised that GenZ males are so far right they'd make Rush Limbaugh blush. I hope they realize Trump is their last chance for a moderate solution." The other reads: "I’m so glad that 17 Americans didn’t get to go to Harvard or Standford because these peoples parents spent $10,000 on SAT prep"

Two quote tweets. The first reads: "Living exclusively around these people for over 15 years is what turned me into a nazi. They're like this all the time." The other reads: "Not going to lie, very depressing to see our hallowed western university system turn into a network of Striver Universities for intellectually incurious exam maxxing Kumon monsters"

Interesting how much resentment this photo created from white conservatives who assumed that the dismantling of DEI meant elite schools would return to the 1940s.

What the fuck. How can anyone still post there

By all means, let the guy who told the secretary of state of Georgia "I just want to find 11,780 votes" make decisions about whose numbers are wrong.