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Alright, this is getting dire. In addition to all of the anti-vaxxer bullshit that has infected HHS thanks to RFK Jr.'s appointment to run the department, we have also made the point recently that an equally big problem is the talent drain occurring at HHS as well. Between the voluntary exits by smart people who [...]

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article. In the months leading up to the implementation of Australia's social media ban in December 2025, there was much discussion about the possible negative consequences. Among these were concerns that teenagers would consume less news. Asmost young adultsuse social media for news [...]

Like most of the U.S., Western Massachusetts towns and cities have spent decades dealing with expensive, spotty, and slow broadband from private telecom monopolies like Comcast and Verizon. As a result, a lot of these towns and cities have explored building their own community owned fiber networks. Community broadband has been increasingly popular since COVID, [...]

Even if you don't live in California you've probably heard about the California primary coming up on June 2 (although early voting has already begun). In particular, you've probably heard about it because everyone and their brother has thrown their hat into the ring for governor, and, because it's a top-two" primary. Sometimes called a [...]

The Academy of Game Art Bundle teaches you the basics of how to create video game art. You'll learn how to use Inkscape to create logos, 2D backgrounds, pre-defined modules, UI designs, and characters. A course on using DragonBones will teach you how to animate your characters as well. The bundle is on sale for [...]

There are many (negative) things this Trump administration is known for. It's a long list and I would encourage everyone to add as many negative things to that list. His DOJ is specifically known for vengeful prosecutions of those who dare to oppose the guy who thinks he's a king. The nation's top law enforcement [...]

As we've previously noted, Brendan Carr recently launched a series of phony inquiries into ABC because Jimmy Kimmel made fun of the president's wife. Carr can't just come out and say that, so he's launched a series of fake (and legally laughable) investigations" into the company. They're all designed to scare ABC, and other big [...]

I'm starting to wonder if RFK Jr. can do anything right at all. After the courts put an injunction on Kennedy's overhaul of the CDC's ACIP panel on vaccines, as well as pretty much all of their recommendations since it was rebuilt on a foundation of anti-vaxxers, the government sprung into action to try to [...]

I've spoken to enough teachers and professors to know that LLM tools are absolutely a challenge for many of them in the classroom. Many struggle with making sure they're actually teaching students how to learn, worrying that the tools are doing the work for them, and skipping over the actual learning. Many are (understandably) resorting [...]

It's one thing to accuse the government of engaging in vindictive prosecutions. It's quite another thing to prove it. The deck is stacked against those making these claims. These allegations rarely succeed. The government gets the benefit of the doubt and has the ability to make evidence against its position simply disappear. It didn't work [...]

The Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was one of the few genuinely good things Donald Trump was talked into doing during his first term. It was an agency within the Department of Homeland Security that was focused on coordination between the government and industry when there were larger cybersecurity threats that needed coordination to [...]

The Complete Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ESP32 Bundle has 14 courses covering what you need to get started on building out your own smart home. After learning the basics, courses show you how to create a weather monitoring system, a smart home security system, a plant watering system, and more. Courses also cover getting familiar [...]

Our war on drugs began with a simple man with a simple plan. That plan was this: give the government more powers at the expense of civil rights, all under the leadership" of soon-to-be-deposed president Richard Nixon and known drug enthusiast, Elvis Presley. While that summary is long on pithiness and short on detail, it's [...]

NPR is imposing a new round of buyouts and layoffs as it tries to survive the brutal Trump GOP attacks on public broadcasting. According to NPR, it's being forced to trim $8 million of its $300-million annual budget because of the illegal (for whatever that word is worth any more) Trump administration attacks on NPR, [...]

This week, our first place winner on the insightful side is Thad pushing back on some of our criticism about John Oliver's AI chatbot segment and his call for regulation: Isn't the logical conclusion of this argument that we shouldn't have government regulations on vaccines or antidepressants? Like, you're arguing that we shouldn't put this [...]

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The fuckery that is going on across HHS and vaccine programs is just plain incredible. As the Trump administration continues to provide whatever cover it can so that RFK Jr. can wreck shop on the health of Americans, the damage Kennedy is doing to our inoculation programs is going to take years, if not decades, [...]

This story wasoriginally publishedby ProPublica.Republished under aCC BY-NC-ND 3.0license. In October, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued pharmaceutical companies tied to Tylenol in state court, repeating claims made a month earlier by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that the pain relief drug was linked to autism and ADHD in children. Paxton, [...]

It's hard to believe we once were shocked to hear a government figure proudly declare that we kill people based on metadata. What's happening now is even more disturbing. We're killing people simply because they happen to be in boats spotted exiting certain shores and headed towards international waters. The War on Drugs has always [...]

Unlock a world of knowledge with a Headway Premium subscription. This exclusive deal gives you unlimited access to Headway's massive library of1500+ book summaries, with30-50 new ones added monthly. Cover any topic you can imagine, from personal development and business strategies to health and wellness. It's usually on sale for $60 for new users only, [...]

Elon Musk, business genius. When Elon Musk announced his plans to buy Twitter, some of his billionaire friends rushed to text him to say they'd throw whatever money they wanted into the deal. Larry Ellison casually offered a billion... or whatever you recommend." Marc Andreessen offered $250 million, no questions asked. This all came out [...]

Late last year we wrote about a new startup that was flooding the internet with AI-generated podcast slop. Featuring fake hosts having fake discussions, the startup proudly stated it was creating about 3,000 new AI-generated podcasts every single week. The owners of the startup (who called critics of AI slop Luddites,") stated that because they [...]

Just a few days ago, I wrote a post about how Bill Cassidy had been primaried out of returning as a senator for Louisiana and how all of this bootlicking of the Trump administration obviously didn't do the job he hoped it would do. As a result, he has been left as a lame duck [...]

Ctrl-Alt-Speech is a weekly podcast about the latest news in online speech, from Mike Masnick and Everything in Moderations Ben Whitelaw. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, Pocket Casts, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice - or go straight to the RSS feed. In this week's roundup of the latest news in online [...]

As statehouses ramp up for 2026, we're seeing a familiar and concerning trend of lawmakers rushing to regulate the internet based on shockingly shaky science. From theCalifornia State Assemblyto theMassachusettsandMinnesotalegislatures, a wave of bills is crashing against the digital lives of young people, with proponents of these measures framing social media access as a public [...]

Last week I read this excerpt of Steven Rosenbaum's new book in Wired. His book is titled The Future of Truth" and the Wired article has the attention grabbing headline: Gen Z Is Pioneering a New Understanding of Truth." I debated writing about the article, because it read to me like pretty typical older generation [...]

The Modern No-Code Creator Bundle is an extensive online curriculum specifically developed to enable individuals to construct professional websites, applications & automated workflows without the necessity of writing any code. It has five courses, covering leading no-code platforms and tools like ChatGPT, Mendix, and Tabnine. It is ideally suited for novices and non-technical professionals, empowering [...]

It's absolutely amazing how wrong this administration has been when it comes to immigration enforcement. That some people still think the Supreme Court is in the best position to resolve this is insane. This isn't a circuit split in need of mending. This is pretty much the entirety of the court system coming to the [...]

Back in February the Trump FCC announced it was launching new reforms" of a major bipartisan FCC program that helps poor people afford broadband. Dubbed Lifeline, the program provides a modest $9.25 stipend to help low-income Americans afford either broadband or phone service. Lifeline, developed and supported as a popular bipartisan initiative, is one of [...]

I assume at one point America was a serious big boy country, but we are certainly not that any longer. You can get examples of the unserious nature of our government in spades, of course, but I'm just going to keep hammering on what is going on at HHS and its child agencies as the [...]

I'm not here to kink shame or suggest sex work isn't work. I'm not here to claim that every sex worker is a victim of sex trafficking. I'm not even here to suggest that government officials shouldn't be allowed to exchange money for goods and sexual services. If they're not on the clock, I'm not [...]

When I was in high school, part of the mandatory social studies curriculum included watching the miniseries Roots in class over the course of several days. I remember it fondly, though I did get myself into a bit of trouble in the process. Apparently shouting things like Hey, where is Geordi La Forge's visor?" and [...]

Curiosity Stream offers unlimited access to thousands of films, series, and shows to satisfy your thirst for knowledge. Whether you're a science enthusiast, history buff, or technology geek, Curiosity Stream has something for everyone. Unleash the power of on-demand streaming that allows you to choose what you want to watch, when you want to watch [...]

Puerile, vindictive, and hateful is no way to run a government. That's how Trump is running his, however. And that means his DOJ cannot possibly hope to stay on the good side of judges, not when it's actively engaged in appeasing an autocratic megalomaniac and his enablers. The lawyers currently staffing the DOJ cannot be [...]

When right wing billionaire Larry Ellison (and his nepobaby kid David) hired trolling blogger Bari Weiss to run CBS News, Weiss arrived with the promise of balanced, fact-based news," independent, principled journalism," and a unique entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision" that would completely modernize the network and reach the everyday Americans" she claimed were being [...]

Senator Bill Cassidy just lost his campaign for reelection to his Senate seat in Louisiana. With that, his career in federal government is likely over. It's no secret as to why this happened. In early 2021, Cassidy suffered from a spasm of patriotism and voted to convict Donald Trump during his impeachment trial after the [...]

As convenient as it is for cops to play along with hysterical claims made by politicians, sometimes a politician goes too far. That seems to be the case here. Scott Bottoms - currently a state rep in Colorado - tried to flex his self-proclaimed far right" bona fides by making a truly absurd claim about [...]

Today marks the deadline for online platforms to implement a process for notice-and-takedown of nonconsensual intimate imagery (NCII) under the TAKE IT DOWN Act (TIDA), which became law one year ago. Starting today, platforms must conspicuously offer a notice-and-removal process for NCII, remove reported material within 48 hours of a valid removal request" from the [...]

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Section 702 surveillance powers are still limping along, mostly unimpeded, despite on-again/off-again objections by federal politicians. More active recently have been several GOP politicians. These representatives are newly opposed to clean reauthorization of Section 702 powers. This isn't because they've come to realize the threat to Americans' rights that warrantless access by the FBI (and [...]

We've talked a lot about how Americans have somehow accepted the fact that our voice networks are now saturated with scammers, fraudsters, and robocallers (no, that's not something that happens in well run, functionally regulated countries). I've also explained for years how the U.S. government solutions to the problems are usually ineffective because they're endlessly [...]

In the online world, we certainly have seen some companies make very poor decisions when it comes to dealing with negative reviews of their products or services. While it can be very frustrating to see this sort of online negativity pop up, the response to a negative review can be as telling as the review [...]

Judge Beryl Howell has now told ICE at least twice: it's not allowed to grade its own papers. Since Trump's return to office, the federal government has been engaged in a months-long purge of anyone who looks a bit foreign. ICE has increasingly relied on administrative warrants to do everything including enter homes to effect [...]

We discussed the rumor of this on Friday, but it's now real: Donald Trump has handed himself a $1.776 billion fund of taxpayer money - unappropriated by Congress - to dole out to friends in the MAGA movement who claim they were mistreated by the Biden administration, but with no judicial review over such claims. [...]

As someone who thinks a lot about AI and suicide, I was disappointed with John Oliver's recent episode of Last Week Tonight on AI Chatbots." The segment boiled down to this: chatbots exploit vulnerable people, drive them toward delusion and harm, and AI companies aren't meaningfully trying to fix them. If anything, as John Oliver [...]

Opusonix is the workflow-first platform built for music producers and engineers who are tired of endless email chains and scattered files. By centralizing feedback, versions, and tasks in one structured workspace, it helps you cut email traffic by up to 90% so you can focus more on creating and less on chasing approvals. From time-coded [...]

Behold this utter bullshit, uttered by the Trump administration's border czar" Tom Homan: White House border czar Tom Homan said Thursday he's sure" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have detained U.S. citizens, but we don't deport them." Homan told reporters outside the White House that U.S. citizens have nothing to fear." We deport people [...]