Author archives

The internet you grew up on isn’t dying. A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.

Take heart – the internet still exists. And you are on it now – as you read beSpacific and LLRX, so go out and discover all the other places, music, writing…enjoy. Terry Godier: “…The reason these systems survived is also the reason they are surviving the AI flood, and the reason they will probably outlive …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Education, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management

Still Night. A painting you can play.

“Still Night. A painting you can play. This isn’t music played over a painting. The painting is the instrument. For 400 years, people have tried to match color and sound. Most assumed notes translated to hues. It doesn’t work that way. Research found something simpler. Brightness shapes how we feel sound, the same way it …

Subjects: Internet

DOGE Cuts Unleashed a Deadly Wave of Violence Across Africa, Study Finds

404 Media: “The sudden shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) by DOGE in 2025 is associated with a rise in violent conflicts across Africa, according to a study published on Thursday in Science. Days into Donald Trump’s second term, his administration began rapidly dismantling USAID, which had, up until that point, …

Subjects: Censorship, Economy, Food and Nutrition, Government Documents

Photos: The Global Cost of the Iran War

The Atlantic Gift Article – The continuing crisis in Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have exacted a heavy cost worldwide. In addition to the steep price of military expenditures, destroyed infrastructure, and human lives lost, global shortages of fuel, fertilizer, and more have driven up costs everywhere.

Subjects: Climate Change, Defense, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System

Newspaper Finder

“Newspapers.com, GenealogyBank, NewspaperArchive, OldNews, Chronicling America … the list of historical newspaper websites goes on and on and on. Thanks to them, genealogists have access to a once-unimaginable number of digitized newspapers—in fact, so many publications in so many places that it can be hard to know where to look. Newspaper Finder, “A Database for …

Subjects: Education, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

Explore the data: 10,000 rulings against Trump in ICE cases

Politico: “Under President Donald Trump, ICE is locking up immigrants at an unprecedented scale, holding tens of thousands of people — many with no criminal records and deep roots in the U.S. — in detention facilities to await the outcome of deportation proceedings. POLITICO is tracking the surge in litigation triggered by the administration’s novel …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Search Engines

Security researchers use Anthropic’s Mythos AI model to crack Apple’s macOS

Fortune Tech: “Researchers with the Silicon Valley security firm Calif say they were able to use Anthropic’s Mythos AI model to corrupt an Apple Mac’s memory and gain access to parts of the machine that they shouldn’t. It’s called a “privilege escalation exploit,” and it can be used to seize control of a computer. The …

Subjects: AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity

White House planned to start Triumphal Arch work under unrelated contract

Washington Post [no paywall]: “The Trump administration planned to start work at the site of the president’s proposed Triumphal Arch by piggybacking on an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, emails obtained by The Washington Post show. The move would allow the administration to bypass …

Subjects: E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

GPO Doubles Congressionally Mandates Reports on GovInfo

“U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) now makes more than 1,000 Congressionally Mandated Reports from 90 Federal agencies available on GovInfo, the one-stop site for authentic, published information for all three branches of the Federal Government. This total has doubled since GPO announced reaching 500 Congressionally Mandated Reports in October 2024 and has continued to grow …

Subjects: Congress, E-Records, Energy, Environmental Law, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

How often does the Supreme Court overturn its own decisions?

Pew Research: “…What kinds of cases have been overturned most frequently? The Supreme Court has overturned precedents in a variety of legal areas. For example, the decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 broadly concerned civil rights. That’s according to the Supreme Court Database, which categorizes cases by issue area. Overall, 14% of Supreme Court …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

The Late-Night Truth Social Storms That Offer a Window Into the President’s Min

Wall Street Journal Gift Article [why did this take so long to publish?] A WSJ analysis of thousands of posts found that the president uses the social-media platform to spread conspiracy theories and attack his adversaries. Monday was a typical day for President Trump. He took questions in the Oval Office. He met with members …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Social Media