Jenny Stoffel

As I walked down the street
I found myself worrying
that everyone
and that everything
is just getting worse,
but as I walked
I saw a family in masks
and an impromptu protest,
and I reminded myself
not everyone
and not everything.

Launching today - our biggest ever project! Sonic Heritage explores the sounds of the world’s most famous sights, with 270 UNESCO World Heritage sites and items of intangible heritage, all reimagined by artists to create a new way to experience these incredible spaces 🏛️🎧 citiesandmemory.com/heritage

It doesn't matter if they are ever coming for you.

It was always ever already too much that they were coming for anyone.

'I can't drink the water' - life next to a US data centre Residents in rural Georgia say the data centre next door has disrupted their water supply.

Depending on who you ask and how much you believe in non-binding announcements, over $1/2 trillion has been promised for new ones of these under Trump 2.0. Meanwhile, Lee Zeldin’s EPA is gutting regulations

Source: REPEAT Project, US nationally determined contribution.

NEW – Chart: Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ blows US emissions goal by 7bn tonnes | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social Ho Woo Nam

Read here: buff.ly/l700teP

A Five-Alarm Fire for Free Speech - PEN America No federal administration has moved as swiftly to exert broad new controls over what people can say, read, learn, research, and think.

"If free speech is the bedrock of democracy, fear and paranoia lay the groundwork for authoritarianism."

Our new report details how the Trump administration’s 100-day assault on free expression has created a five-alarm fire for free speech: pen.org/report/trump...

Whoa

Great thread.

How Musk and Trump Are Working to Consolidate Government Data About You Databases that Elon Musk’s team is trying to access include more than 300 personal details about members of the U.S. public.

The US government holds a tremendous amount of data about US citizens. Now,
The Trump administration is trying to access that data and link it together.

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/u...

One Tech Tip: Locking down your device when crossing borders Travelers should prepare for extra scrutiny of devices when crossing borders, especially when entering the U.S.

Powering off your phone or laptop erases the key that unlocks its encryption, and so protects against unwanted searches, EFF’s Will Greenberg told @apnews.com. “This is why a border agent can’t simply turn a device on to use a tool like Cellebrite.”

All of this
yes, all of this,
and still
the pandemic as well.

There’s been some alarming news about honeybees so here’s some important context. If you want to help bees, help native bees - bumbles in particular.

Instead of honey bee hives, plant native plants. Contact your local native plant society or garden shop and every where you can, plant native.

How to Save a Democracy Americans can learn from opponents of authoritarianism elsewhere.

"The problem with a delayed response is that the more power leaders with authoritarian tendencies accumulate, the harder it is to mount an effective resistance. The opposition is thus more likely to succeed if it acts early..."

www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...

Another good reminder to donate to @archive.org today.

I’m with the institutional courage approach: institutions should not betray their students under any circumstances.

Folks, they have less than 1k comments so far. Posts arguing about which way to hang toilet paper have more comments in facebook groups. If you are in any way involved in art: writing, music, acting, film MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD

Presumably, most people following this account are already fighting back against the outrages of the Musk/Trump regime.

Thus, learning about a new outrage may not be able to spur you to further action, because you're already doing everything you can.

Right?
newrepublic.com/post/192660/...

The coolest thing I’ve seen today is that a bunch of volunteer public health professionals and developers have restored the CDC website from before January 20th 2025.

This differs from an archive in that they want to rebuild the links between pages and replicate the full website.

Watch the Sci-Fi Short Film “I’m Not a Robot”: Winner of a 2025 Academy Award Victoria Warmerdam, the writer and director of the short film, 'I’m Not a Robot,' summarizes the plot of her 22-minute film as follows:

Watch the Sci-Fi Short Film “I’m Not a Robot”: Winner of a 2025 Academy Award.

Great short film to watch this weekend...

Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having 'profound' security and privacy issues | TechCrunch Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned Friday that agentic AI could come with a risk to user privacy. Speaking onstage at the SXSW conference in

I did. Because it does.

techcrunch.com/2025/03/07/s...

In Profile: Neo-Censorship in U.S. Libraries, with Michelle Reed Neo-Censorship in U.S. Libraries: An Investigation Into Digital Content Suppression is a painfully timely report into digital censorship in the United States, released by Library Futures in February…

"As information professionals, open advocates, and communities who just give a damn, it’s important to educate ourselves on the tactics pro-censorship advocates have used to push their agenda forward so we can effectively fight against it" @librariansreed.bsky.social in our latest:

Call Congress: Keep DOGE Out of Our Data Trump has given DOGE unrestricted access to our personal info, from finances to health records. Call Congress and take action now.

DOGE’s access to our personal information is an unprecedented invasion of privacy.

Tell your Congress members to protect our data NOW.

The mass firing of federal tech workers at 18F is one of DOGE's most extreme political acts yet The federal digital services team 18F had a diverse workforce and openly inclusive policies. That's why DOGE killed it.

The mass firing of the federal tech workers at 18F is already being subsumed by fresh hells. But it's important that we take a beat to understand what just happened—that elimination of 18F is one of DOGE's most extreme political acts yet.

www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-mass-f...

Conjuring algorithms: Understanding the tech industry as stage magicians - Peter Nagy, Gina Neff, 2024 In this article, we introduce the term “conjuration of algorithms” to describe how the tech industry uses the language of magic to shape people’s perceptions of...

Sam Altman says GPT-4.5 has "a magic to it i haven't felt before."

I'm reminded of Peter Nagy and Gina Neff's article about "the conjuration of algorithms—a strategically deployed narrative device that uses the principles of magic to manipulate the public perception of technologies."

AI Agents Will Be Manipulation Engines Surrendering to algorithmic agents risks putting us under their influence.

My prediction in @wired.com: 2025 is the year of AI agents.
The coming psychopolitical regime "directs the environments where our ideas are born, developed, and expressed. Its power lies in its intimacy—it infiltrates our subjectivity.

We will be playing an imitation game that ultimately plays us."

Democracies stand with Ukraine.

On Organizing time to level up / an early draft of a playbook

One of the best texts on organizing I have ever read.

Movements with just *3.5% participation* have toppled regimes.

Organising needs: trust, creativity and tactical planning.

@theradr.bsky.social
www.lifeisasacredtext.com/organize/

Oh no