Posts from February 2025

bunny.net is a good CDN

Quick programming note. I host images and stylesheets for this site on a CDN, which is probably overkill these days since I'm not posting many photos. Anyway, I recently moved from AWS CloudFront to bunny.net and I recommend it. bunny.net is easier to use, cheaper, and isn't owned by Bezos. It's just another small step away from the big tech companies for me.
lite.cnn.com
“I’m in close contact with the CDC. They have about what, 13,000 employees, 13,000 employees at the CDC. In the last couple years, those probationary people, which is about 10% of their employee base, about 1,300 people, which you’re referring to. A lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI,” McCormick said. The mention of AI led to “no’s” and murmurs from the crowd, leading the Republican representative to say, “I happen to be a doctor. I know a few things.”
AI’s primary use right now is devaluing workers. Sounds like even Republican constituents have had enough of the AI snake oil.
micahflee.com
A lot of us know by now that Substack has a Nazi problem. It not only profits from fascist voices, it actively promotes their work and recruits them. And it's funded by Silicon Valley anti-democracy billionaires like Marc Andreesen — the same type of people who are, right now, raiding the US government to basically cut funding for social services and scientific research, and to steal money for themselves.
Every day I see more and more people starting their indie left-leaning journalism venture on Substack. Cut that out! They're taking your money and paying fascists to post. The slight boost you might see in list-building is not worth the trade-off of supporting their ideological project that is at odds with your values.
Google Threat Intelligence Group
The operational emphasis on Signal from multiple threat actors in recent months serves as an important warning for the growing threat to secure messaging applications that is certain to intensify in the near-term.
Secure messaging apps under fire. Good to see the methods involved in gaining access to be aware of them.
text.npr.org
I really like this text-only version of the NPR news site. I understand why more sites don't do this, but they should. I normally don't go to any NPR sites, but I do visit this page fairly often to scan the headlines. See also: CNN Lite, CBC Lite
The Guardian
Four out of 10 Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll.
I am one of those four. I haven’t made any Amazon purchases in 2025 and canceled Prime.
A Working Library
…screens and all the technologies that accompany them are tools to make the world seem more predictable and less uncertain: infinite scroll; autoplay; the always-on “live” news cycle; the steady drumbeat of notifications; the apps that summon servants to our doors, hiding all the labor and improvisation and accidents (often involving blood and bone) that go into moving atoms from one place to another. These tools train us in convenience, which is training in predictability, in the facade of certainty. And when that facade inevitably breaks, we often find ourselves at sea.
Strategies for living with uncertainty.
Aresluna
One day, I saw what felt like Gorton on a ferry traversing the waters Bay Area. A few weeks later, I spotted it on a sign in a national park. Then on an intercom. On a street lighting access cover. In an elevator. At my dentist’s office. In an alley.
Beautiful story of discovering some surprisingly ubiquitous typography that tells us about past production methods.
thebulwark.com
I can’t tell you what the market is going to say, because I don’t know how quickly it’s able to assimilate reality. What I can tell you is this: If we’re at scenarios #1 or #2, it means that the world does not understand political reality in America yet.
The self-proclaimed king of business is about to destroy a good number of businesses so his business will be the only business in town.