Cassie Findlay

Elon Musk’s Grokipedia Is a Warning The centibillionaire’s Wikipedia clone is ridiculous. It’s also a glimpse of the future.

"the whole world reinterpreted to their preferences, or the preferences of a model, in real time" > Another giant leap towards total absence of a shared reality nymag.com/intelligence...

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans The Trump administration has expanded Palantir’s work with the government, spreading the company’s technology — which could easily merge data on Americans — throughout agencies.

In news that is surely shocking to no one, Trump is building a giant database of data on US citizens with Palantir www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/t... Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans - The New York Times

Messaging apps: a report on Australian Government agency practices and policies This report by the Australian Information Commissioner examines the prevalence and use of messaging apps by Australian Government agencies.

With impeccable timing the OAIC releases a report on the use of messaging apps by Government workers www.oaic.gov.au/about-the-OA...

Douglas Adams would have loved this

Introducing Should I Spit? DNA is the blueprint for life. While police call it the ‘gold standard’ for forensic identification, transnational corporations see dollar signs. Investigative journalist Claire Aird brings the untold...

Don't give your DNA to companies, guys go.list.nr/zkw8gh

AHA Sends Letter to White House Regarding Dismissal of US Archivist The AHA has sent a letter to President Trump regarding his dismissal of the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen J. Shogan.

American Historical Association letter to White House regarding dismissal of US Archivist www.historians.org/news/aha-sen...

Trump Has a 'List' of National Archives Staff to Fire as Revenge for Docs Scandal President Donald Trump, still bitter about the FBI's raid of Mar-a-Lago, has asked for a "list" of National Archives staffers to fire.

Trump Has a ‘List’ of National Archives Staff to Fire as Revenge for Docs Scandal www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

National Archives Workers Unsure If Marco Rubio Has Secretly Been Their Boss for Weeks The current Archivist of the United States held an all-hands this week in which she still seemed to be in charge, 404 Media has learned.

ABC News reported Marco Rubio has been acting as head of the National Archives for weeks. This is news to everyone at the National Archives, including, apparently, the current head of NARA:

www.404media.co/national-arc...

How many shared understandings of provable facts are needed for a society to function? Asking for a friend

The Trouble with Journalism Let me state it plainly: the desire for balance and the desperate need of journalists to appear neutral will be the death of us.

"the model of journalism we have used for more than 100 years has been tested in this era of bald-faced political fabrication, dissembling and existential environmental threat. It has been found utterly wanting "
meanjin.com.au/essays/the-t...

Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content Mark Zuckerberg says company will ‘dramatically reduce censorship’ across Facebook, Instagram and Threads

They'd been going this way for a while but mask off www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Meta debuts a tool for watermarking AI-generated videos Meta is open sourcing a method to watermark AI-generated videos. Called Meta Video Seal, the company says it's robust against compression and edits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta debuts a tool for watermarking AI-generated videos

Orcas revive 'dead salmon hat' trend from the 1980s Researchers in Washington have noticed at least one orca balancing salmon on its head in Puget Sound this fall

This is my favourite current news story. Particularly the bit about the orcas potentially reviving an 80s trend (the salmon hat) vancouversun.com/news/orcas-r...

The deep historical forces that explain Trump’s win Our research shows that political breakdown, from the Roman Empire to the Russian revolution, follows a clear pattern: workers’ wages stagnate, while elites multiply

Great essay by Peter Turchin reflecting on historic societal decline and comparing the the current US.