Things that I read.

11/09/2025

"What’s needed is a fundamental shift in how we approach the development and deployment of AI agents. First, privacy must be the default, and control must remain in the hands of application developers exercising agency on behalf of their users. Developers need the ability to designate applications as “sensitive” and mark them as off-limits to agents, at the OS level and otherwise. This cannot be a convoluted workaround buried in settings; it must be a straightforward, well-documented mechanism (similar to Global Privacy Control) that blocks an agent from accessing our data or taking actions within an app.

Second, radical transparency must be the norm. Vague assurances and marketing-speak are no longer acceptable. OS vendors have an obligation to be clear and precise about their architecture and what data their AI agents are accessing, how it is being used and the measures in place to protect it."

The Signal Foundation’s president worries they will also blunt competition and undermine cyber-security

11/09/2025

10/09/2025

Families who receive child care assistance report greater financial stability, more time to focus on their children, and the ability to choose higher-quality care settings. Now, every family in New Mexico will have the same opportunity.

SANTA FE — Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department announced a historic milestone on Monday: New Mexico will become the first state in the nation to guarantee no-cost universal child care starting Nov. 1.

08/09/2025

“The noted Diné (Navajo) weaver Marilou Schultz recently completed an intricate weaving composed of thick white lines on a black background, punctuated with reddish-orange diamonds. Although this striking rug may appear abstract, it shows the internal circuitry of a tiny silicon chip known as the 555 timer. This chip has hundreds of applications in everything from a sound generator to a windshield wiper controller. At one point, the 555 was the world's best-selling integrated circuit with billions sold. But how did the chip get turned into a rug?”

The noted Diné (Navajo) weaver Marilou Schultz recently completed an intricate weaving composed of thick white lines on a black background, ...

05/09/2025

"Many people in the survey as well as in interviews, said they felt a sense of economic fragility, even if their finances were adequate or secure today. In a generational cascade, majorities said the prior generation had an easier time buying a home, starting a business or being a full-time parent rather than in the workforce, while majorities also said they lacked confidence that the next generation could buy a home or save adequately for retirement.

While Jeff Lindly, 61, said he believes the economy is improving slowly, his adult children’s experience in the housing market draws a contrast with his own. Lindly was able to earn enough to support his wife and family when his children were young. They bought a house and, later, built two more. Now, two of his three adult children live with him in Godley, Texas, one in a trailer on the property and one with her husband and child in the home.

“They can’t afford a house yet, even though they’re trying to save by living with us,” said Lindly, a real-estate appraiser who said that he expects housing affordability to improve with time and that he supports President Trump’s policies. His income recently has been about 40% of what is typical amid a slow housing market.

Bill Sanchez, 30, a criminal defense attorney who makes about $72,000 a year and is an Army veteran living in Stroudsburg, Pa., said the American dream isn’t as achievable now: “There’s limits to what hard work can actually bring people these days.”

Trump is contending with a disconnect between the nation’s sour outlook and traditional measures showing a robust economy.

02/09/2025

This worksheet can help us prepare for Trump's military interventions at the neighborhood level.

02/09/2025

"In a new blog post admitting certain failures amid its users' mental health crises, OpenAI also quietly disclosed that it's now scanning users' messages for certain types of harmful content, escalating particularly worrying content to human staff for review — and, in some cases, reporting it to the cops.

"When we detect users who are planning to harm others, we route their conversations to specialized pipelines where they are reviewed by a small team trained on our usage policies and who are authorized to take action, including banning accounts," the blog post notes. "If human reviewers determine that a case involves an imminent threat of serious physical harm to others, we may refer it to law enforcement."

OpenAI has authorized itself to call law enforcement if users say threatening enough things when talking to ChatGPT.

01/09/2025

"I’m skeptical of reports that there is something unusual about Trump’s health. I doubt his health is great, since he’s nearly 80, but a hand bruise does not a deathbed make. His lackeys are lurking like vultures, particularly Vance. I am more worried about Vance than Trump because I think AI, surveillance, and technofascism pose the greatest threat to humanity — making it far more difficult to defeat standard authoritarianism — and Vance is a frontman for Thiel.

Trump is also a vehicle for Evil Tech, but he is primarily a frontman for organized crime and is preoccupied with old-school kleptocratic ventures. These ventures are abetted by technology but Trump, in many ways, is a throwback dictator. He, too, is living in 1984. Whatever vestiges of 20th century life we have might vanish with him. To be clear, Trump has continued the worst aspects of the 20th century — but there is a familiarity to it that tech oligarchs want to destroy. Trump is pushing us over the cliff so we can land in Thiel’s uncanny valley.

As for Trump’s cult, many of them are upset about Epstein, a failed economy, and other disasters. Trump does not care. The MAGA cult has lost its importance because they can be replaced with an AI cult. If the dictator has the appearance of followers, he will not care if anyone actually likes him. If the dictator is insecure, it is easy for his team to create hordes of fake followers and not tell him (as they already do with Trump.) These are old dictatorship tactics streamlined with new technology.

His lackeys may fight each other — not over elected positions but over resources, territory, and power. I’m expecting something akin to the oligarch turf wars in 1990s Russia, but more dystopian due to digital illusions and the feel of end times in the air."

On Epstein, Trump, and getting by.

01/09/2025

"Congratulations, MAGA. You have two new celebrities who are slightly more culturally relevant than Kid Rock eating Lee Greenwood’s farts while The Village People play Donald Trump’s favorite song about ba****ck gay s*x for the one millionth time.

Maybe Trump can make Snoop a Kennedy Center honoree next year."

Now we know.

31/08/2025

“Racist housing policies moved a predominately white population to new neighborhoods that came with new streets, new schools, more valuable homes and — largely invisible to many of their inhabitants — greater flood risk. African Americans were left to older neighborhoods, deemed less desirable in most ways, although they had the lost-to-view benefit of being at higher elevations.

The Lower Ninth Ward offers an exception that proves the rule. The African American neighborhood was low-lying and subject to a devastating wall of water in 2005. But it had not been home to the city’s most marginalized citizens. Rather, it had been built by and for middle-class African Americans who had found ways to access the benefits of the local, state, and federal commitments to metropolitan growth and home ownership.”

The disaster that struck the Gulf Coast 20 years ago was not an aberration but a product of U.S. history.