The Independent Variable (Page 9)

HELP WANTED: More linkbloggers Featured Post

TLDR

I'm putting a feeler out there to see if anyone is interested in joining TIV as a fellow linkblogger and helping me turn this into a collective of like-minded linkblogging individuals.

Background

The way I've viewed the site is basically a way to talk about what's going on in the world via links, as well as sharing cool things I stumble upon.

I've long had this idea that The Independent Variable would eventually become a more collaborative linkblog à la Boing Boing—or maybe having the occasional guest editor/curator à la Kottke.

Now that we're on Ghost, and

🗯️ In Charlie Kirk’s name: Trump officials signal move to limit free speech

politics

FT

“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” he added. “It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie’s name.”

In honor of the “bastion of free speech” and the debater who was so skilled he only ever debated with college students, we are going to… ensure no one can ever speak a negative word about Trump, Kirk, or any of their allies

💬 Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase

tech

Skyfall

Two days ago, Slack reached out to us and said that if we don’t agree to pay an extra $50k this week and $200k a year, they’ll deactivate our Slack workspace and delete all of our message history.

What a class act they run over at Slack and Salesforce. A week’s notice to go from $5k a year to $200k a year for a non-profit when it probably costs Slack pennies on the dollar to host their data.

🤡 Trump says he’s designating antifa as “a major terrorist organization”

politics

Axios

Context: Antifa is a decentralized, leaderless movement that’s opposed to fascism and is loosely defined as far-left.

I’d love to hear him try to name a single individual in this so-called “major terrorist organization.”

🤖 Anthropic irks White House with limits on models’ use

ai

Semafor

Anthropic recently declined requests by contractors working with federal law enforcement agencies because the company refuses to make an exception allowing its AI tools to be used for some tasks, including surveillance of US citizens, said the officials, who spoke to Semafor on the condition of anonymity.

Apparently, a tech company has at least a couple of vertebrae left in its spine. I’m sure those will be gone soon, though—cause they already essentially offer their services to the government for free.

Anthropic irks White House with limits on models’ use

The AI firm declined requests by contractors

📺 ABC suspends ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ “indefinitely” over Charlie Kirk comments

media

THR

Kimmel’s original comments were as follows: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”

This literally can’t be all he said, can it? That’s enough to suspend him? That’s more tame than anything the people on the right have said, accusing democrats and the trans community of Kirk’s death. So much for free speech and being against cancel culture. What a joke.

HELP WANTED: More linkbloggers Featured Post

TLDR

Background

🗯️ In Charlie Kirk’s name: Trump officials signal move to limit free speech

💬 Slack is extorting us with a $195k/yr bill increase

🤡 Trump says he’s designating antifa as “a major terrorist organization”

🤖 Anthropic irks White House with limits on models’ use

📺 ABC suspends ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ “indefinitely” over Charlie Kirk comments

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HELP WANTED: More linkbloggers

Introducing the new and improved TIV

🇺🇸 DOJ deletes study showing domestic terrorists are most often right wing

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