Looking Back: On the evolution of how we read - ‘Where once we were rapt, now we are gift-wrapped’.

OpenAI’s new model tried to avoid being shut down: By disabling its oversight mechanism and copying itself elsewhere, tho the context is important.

A Pictorial History of Santa Claus: Turns out that “Red-and-white Santa Claus was invented by Coca Cola” is a myth, meaning I’ve been spreading misinformation, whoops.

The Senate’s New Anti-Encryption Bill Is Even Worse Than EARN IT, and That’s Saying Something: A 2020 attempt by the US government to, in practical terms, outlaw secure encryption.

A brief history of U.S. encryption policy: “law enforcement will always want access to encrypted communications, and technology companies will always have incentives to produce stronger encryption”.

U.S. officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid cyberattack: Chinese hackers have gotten into key telecommunications infrastructure.

Hackers breach Andrew Tate’s online university - obtain chat logs and leak data on 800,000 users: Imagine the levels of dystopia those chats probably complain whilst funding the reprehensible life of Tate

leadership: ‘…the single most important trait of a good leader is the ability to listen to someone who has less power than you do about the ways in which you’ve fucked up’

The Worst Thing You’ve Ever Done, Grace and Forgiveness: We’re more than the worst thing we ever did.

Elon Musk’s basic misunderstandings of free speech are a problem for all of us: Firstly that the First Amendment applies to private businesses, and secondly that even if it did that it would prevent social networks taking down sexually explicit pictures that were released without the subject’s consent.

Why you should use a different email address for every site: The list of things you might want to do in order to maintain some semblance of privacy/safety on the internet these days grows ever longer.

Choke Point 2.0: A primer on the right’s latest conspiracy theory: Today’s wild claim is something like ‘Biden is personally causing his political enemies to be refused bank service’.

Federal Court Blocks Louisiana Law Mandating Posting Of Ten Commandments In School Classrooms: Turns out not everyone believes that the US separation between church and state should be destroyed quite so blatantly.

Bill Gates’ warning to the world: ‘As they reckon with their multiple defeats, progressives must avoid the twin temptations of fatalism and utopianism.’

Helpline for Yakuza victims fears it leaked their personal info: A Japanese government agency was phished.

Who is winning UK Politics Bluesky so far?: The left, at least as measured by the slightly strange metric of how many MPs follow them.

The far right grows through “disaster fantasies”: Their prioritisation of imaginary disasters that require individual solutions over real disasters that need collective action.

Semaglutide Eligibility Across All Current Indications for US Adults: An estimated 137 million US adults are medically eligible for treatment with Semaglutide.

Texas AG Declares War On Advertisers Who Snub Musk’s ExTwitter: Ken Paxton seems to want to make it illegal to not give Elon Musk money.

The CIA uses board games to train officers—and I got to play them

What are the key issues in the assisted dying bill debate?: Things to think about as the UK vote on legalising assisted dying draws closer.

‘The Apprentice’ actor Sebastian Stan: Hollywood stars fear Trump: It’s not only tech billionaires - certain actors seem to be preemptively afraid to associate with their peers who portray Trump in anything other than the most positive of lights.

A new era dawns. America’s tech bros now strut their stuff in the corridors of power: ‘This is the fusion of state and commercial power in a ruling elite.’

‘Real nastiness’: therapist training courses in UK can be ‘toxic’ and need regulating, say students: It’s unfortunate how unregulated some healthcare sectors that we appear to need now more than ever are.

Don’t call it a Substack: Anil implores us not to refer to our writing using some other dubious entity’s brand name - ‘Imagine the author of a book telling people to “read my Amazon”’.