jwz

Yo, check it!
A contest!

Win a pair of seated tickets to the next Cyberdelia by guessing how many floppy disks are in this basket!

Per longstanding tradition, for this, the THIRTIETH Anniversary of HACKERS, we will have:

• A screening of Hackers at 8pm;
• Hackers costume contest at 11pm;
• Head-to-head Wipeout XL competition throughout the night;
• Skate ramps! Rollerblades welcome!
• Electro / big beat / cyberpunk dance party to follow with DJs Adora Blue and PJ DJ.

"Hackers penetrate and ravage delicate public and privately owned computer systems, infecting them with viruses, and stealing materials for their own ends. These people, they are terrorists."

I really think more people should have been tipped off by the fact that this hollow-eyed ghoul looks like an "after" from Evil Dead.

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:

Centers For Disease Control Ex Mortis.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Philip Bump:

It is useful and important to look at this question not through the lens of persuasion but the lens of power. Your engagement and your work, not unlike your vote, is a form of power, something you can choose to grant to others. Those others, particularly organizations and companies, accrue that power to use as they see fit. [...]

[Substack] has done a good job creating tools that make it easy to publish. A number of well-regarded journalists use those tools and have built their personal brands by doing so. [...] But they have done so while sharing that growth with Substack, a company that intentionally provides a voice to white nationalist and Nazi propaganda. They have transferred their power to a company that has used it to promote toxic rhetoric in the guise of "having a debate." [...]

Even if they worked perfectly, Substack and Twitter/X only accrue power over the long term for Substack and X. If one of Substack's most popular authors were to be abducted by aliens tomorrow, Substack retains the value she created on the company's behalf. It benefits institutionally from her using the platform. She helped build its institutional power -- which it currently uses, in small part, to ensure Nazis a voice in the discussion.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Florida Deploys Police To Stare At Crosswalks, Stop Them From Being Painted Rainbow Colors:

Earlier this week, officers painted the rainbow stripes into stark black and white. Citizens repainted them. Road crews erased them again. The back-and-forth has escalated to the point where the state has now deployed as many as six police squad cars to guard asphalt, their sole mission to prevent the reemergence of rainbow colors at the site of one of the worst anti-LGBTQ+ massacres in U.S. history.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Mass. mom detained by ICE for 10 days over decades-old minor marijuana charge:

When Rosa asked about his wife's medical care, the agent cited HIPAA laws as a barrier to knowing her health issues. Taken aback, Rosa pointed out that doctors can share medical information with law enforcement when a patient is in custody, which is specifically outlined in HIPAA.

"He said a very disgusting joke after that," Rosa recalled.

"He said, 'We'll notify next of kin if she dies.' And at that moment, I knew that I was no longer dealing with humans."

"I knew I was dealing with someone that is sick in the head, and this was the person who made the decision to incarcerate her," Rosa said.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Exhibit A.
Exhibit B. If there's one person who knows a little something about being The Antichrist, it's probably Sweaty Peter Thiel:

You are warmly invited to a series of four lectures by Peter Thiel addressing the topic of the biblical Antichrist:

Peter is a technology entrepreneur and investor who has spent much of his career writing and speaking about how his Christian faith informs his understanding of the world. His remarks will be anchored on science and technology, and will comment on the theology, history, literature, and politics of the Antichrist.

These lectures are off-the-record.

The lectures are designed as a cohesive series, with each session building on the last. To support continuity and community, tickets are only available for the full four-part program.

This event is organized by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit called "ACTS 17 Collective: Acknowledging Christ in Technology and Society".

I can't tell how much they were charging to attend this Amway meeting because it's sold out.

And, as noted, "off the record".

Gotta spread the Good Word, but not too far!

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Newsom can successfully ape the worst politicians in America because he's not so different from them.

Newsom is at his most cartoon-evil-villain when it comes to the rights and dignity of the most at-risk Americans. In March, he had notorious rightwinger Charlie Kirk on his podcast in order to throw trans teenagers under the bus, and earlier this summer, he repeated worries about trans teen athletes stealing "opportunities" from cis teen athletes -- on, you guessed it, another podcast. (As an aside, you should not have time to have your own fucking podcast if you're the governor of the fourth-largest economy in the world.)

But Newsom's favorite vulnerable demographic to stick it to is the homeless. Since the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that jurisdictions can criminalize sleeping outside, he's doubled down on efforts to clear homeless encampments across the state, bragging that 16,000 such communities have been demolished -- and gleefully participated in destroying some himself. He's been personally involved in eliminating such encampments for years (see the above photo, which is from 2021), including Oakland's Wood Street camp in 2022. [...]

Newsom's success as a politician thus far (and I mean that in the most derogatory way possible) is due to his adoption of whichever policies or perspectives will get him attention and, in his calculus, win him support -- that's what he's doing with the Trump-y tweets, and with the gerrymandered congressional district map he approved yesterday. Both moves illustrate what is appealing about Newsom to broad swathes of the Democratic base: a sociopath opportunist on their side willing to take on the sociopath opportunist in the White House. And while I famously agree that the Democratic Party needs leadership that is willing to challenge Trump's brownshirt administration, I'm not sure we need it from someone who hates queer and/or poor people as much as Trump and his friends.

Previously, previously, previously.

ICE! It's got what lungs crave:

An ICE facility in South Portland has resurfaced as a hotbed where activists have been clashing with federal enforcement officers for months. [...] But as the protests have grown, so have the amount of weapons used against them. And the surrounding neighborhoods are suffering as a result.

Situated just a block from the complex, the Cottonwood School decided to abandon its longtime campus in a 4-2 vote, citing concerns around students' health. "We have been impacted mostly by chemical weapons that are being used against protesters in the vicinity of our school," Laura Cartwright, Cottonwood's interim executive director, explained of the decision to local news. "Daily, we were finding that [sic] munitions on our play yard, we were getting footage in the evening of green gases, and gases were being used near our gardens and enveloping our area." [...]

Local residents have also expressed concern amid the growing crackdowns. "I'm at home," one mother tells KGW News in June. "Why are you shooting at me at my home? What if my baby was on the balcony?" Another told Koin 6 about the long-term effects of tear gas. "I've got friends who also live in these buildings, and they can't open their windows."

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

How do I find a drug dealer who will sell me these dank Canadian vaccine doses? Without needing to risk crossing a border myself. Will I need to use cryptocurrency for this, since buying illegal drugs is still the only use case for Dunning-Krugerrands? (Oh, that and paying ransoms.)

News releases from both Pfizer and Moderna say the new mRNA shots will target the LP.8.1 variant, a descendant of Omicron:

Moderna says it will manufacture vaccine doses for the Canadian market in its new facility in Laval, Quebec and syringes will be filled in Cambridge, Ontario. Both Pfizer's vaccine -- called Comirnaty -- and Moderna's shot -- called Spikevax -- are approved for adults and children six months of age and older.

Update: Welp. Trump and RFK Jr. to Ban COVID-19 Vaccine 'Within Months'.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.

Billionaire Island Is in a Poop War With a Neighboring Town of Millionaires:

Nestled on a man-made island off the coast of Miami, Indian Creek is a village that the likes of Jeff Bezos, Tom Brady, and Jared Kushner call home. It's got an exclusive golf course. Gated bridge-only access. It even has its own government and police department. It's an island filled with mansions that have more bathrooms than there are total rooms in any home you've ever lived in. [...]

The standoff culminated in a shady, underhanded legislative maneuver only a consortium of tax-dodging billionaires could come up with: Indian Creek went to the Florida statehouse, and, with the help of Republican lawmakers sympathetic to the plight of the common underprivileged billionaire, slipped a rider into a transportation bill that would force Surfside to accept the pipeline with zero payout. [...]

An enclave of the ultrarich desperate to be cut off from the rest of humanity forced a neighboring small town to eat the contents of their toilets with no financial compensation, lest the rich folks be forced to suffer the indignity of jet skiing through their own floating turds because they were unwilling to be truly self-sustaining, so they had to be the moochers that all billionaires actually are beneath the bootstrap-y self-made horseshit fantasy façade.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.