The gpg.fail talk at #39C3 was pretty amazing. Incredible hacking! Surprisingly, many of the serious bugs have still not been patched despite having been reported 2 months ago. Here's their summary slide.

#39C3 had a super-simplistic talk on fascism, cybernetics, AI and "TESCREAL" by a German political scientist and Sinologist and the audience seemed to lap it up. Oh well.

Nadezhda Purtova on "The law of everything. Broad concept of personal data and future of EU data protection law". (2018) Increasingly, there's nothing that *isn't* covered by data protection law.

"Gandhi was much more than merely a political leader. He was also a moral philosopher who gave the world a particular technique for combating injustice, namely nonviolent protest." fivebooks.com/best-books/g...

I don't know who needs to hear this, but Everest Masala Chai powder is totally worth getting.

For public-facing reports, looking "good enough" isn't sufficient. Small changes — like using consistent colors and fonts — can instantly make your report look on-brand. Watch our walkthrough of how to make high-quality PDFs with Quarto and Typst: buff.ly/hRuUEqR #rstats

Excellent pointers from the folks at @typst.app on how to make a PDF accessible for persons with disabilities: typst.app/blog/2025/ac... This is a large part of the reason why I've shifted to Typst over LaTeX. #a11y #QuartoPub #Typst

I spent several days working on this blog post and video. Behold everything I know (aka everything @joseph-barbier.bsky.social has ever taught me) about making high-quality PDFs using Quarto and Typst. #rstats

China blames US for cyber break-in, claims America is world's biggest bit burglar. 'US is … the greatest source of chaos in cyberspace' #security #China #USA #cybersecurity www.theregister.com/2025/10/20/c...

What we die from vs. what we hear in the news. Terrorism and homicides account for less than 1% of deaths, but for more than half of all media stories about death in the US — whether in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Fox News.

#FoE #censorship #Philippines

Which of these two versions of The Lute Player is an original by Caravaggio? The Met Museum in New York has previously said that it’s the one on the right. But other experts’ view ~ that it’s the one on the left ~ has now been supported by AI analysis www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

BLR people, please come for this Bangalore Legal Forum event about Free Speech and Internet Regulation (in India) at the Bangalore International Centre tomorrow evening (1600 - 1730). Details 👇

The Bangalore Legal Forum (MLS-MAHE + NLSIU + SLCU + SJCL) is organizing its inaugural event: Free Speech and Internet Regulation in India Bangalore International Centre Wednesday, April 23, 2025 16:00–17:30 Come join Sarayu Natarajan, @prateekwaghre.com, Sachin S., and yours truly

One ought not be selective about due process. One ought not say, "he's a terrorist/gang member; due process is a hindrance to justice". Equally, one must not say, "he's a sexual harasser/white supremacist; due process is a hindrance to justice." Justice demands due process.

I personally have liberal friends in legal academia who are not "fascists" or "Holocaust deniers" who are afraid to speak their minds on certain topics because they fear it will get them ostracised. Feeling virtuous about creating this atmosphere of fear doesn't help.

US liberals haven't been very supportive of free trade over the past few years, just like US conservatives. Trump's election have led them to strongly change their minds. Now more than 40% of US liberals "strongly approve of free trade". Graph by @jburnmurdoch.ft.com #tribalism #polarization #USA

“Why do you take such childish delight in puns?” “I’m a groan man.”

We can never know for sure where the future will take us. But I can speculate. My latest Ex Machina article. exmachina.in/09/04/2025/p...

Most litigants will never end up in a high court; their cases will remain in the labyrinths of district courts. Yet, reforms at the base of the judicial pyramid have not got the required attention. www.theindiaforum.in/book-reviews...

We @okfn.bsky.social are creating, in collaboration with communities all over the World, a tool that helps you learn everything about tabular data while applying it to your workflow! Take the course! Test the App! opendataeditor.okfn.org

Gmail now makes it easy for orgs to manage end-to-end encryption using S/MIME. It even allows sending e2ee emails to those not using S/MIME. This is great for security, but terrible for transparency, esp if govts use it, as it'd allow "revocation" of emails. workspace.google.com/blog/identit...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright: America's chickens are coming home to roost. youtu.be/Vy6lFFaX0nQ?...

This trend seems to be growing here. False comfort that AI doesn’t work or that it isn’t getting better is pervasive on Blue Sky. As a result, people who could add important points of view to current discussions on the meaning & use of AI instead try to believe they don’t have to think about it.

काल करे सो आज कर, आज करे सो अब । पल में परलय होएगी, बहुरि करेगा कब ॥

Twitter/X has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court challenging the govt's authority to censor under S.79(3)(b) of the IT Act. Glad to see that Twitter's lawyers are adopting an argument I've put forward for over a decade! #FoE #censorship #India www.barandbench.com/news/litigat...

"Aren't Jews skilled in somehow gaining control over ruling classes without any responsibility other than their self-interest, scheming and tormenting other groups to exploit them?" — Periyar EVR (1938-03-20, reprinted in Viḍudalai on 2016-07-09) #Antisemitism #Dravidianism

Folks like Karen Attiah will never understand why so many liberals dislike the mandated segregation and racial hierarchy that "DEI" imposes.

Few changes in finalized requirements for labeling AI generated content. We wrote up the draft last October if you want to see what's included. www.chinalawtranslate.com/proposed-ai-...

How the Internet Society South Sudan Chapter Mobilized to Keep the Internet On www.internetsociety.org/blog/2025/03...

"Disappeared" rightly means that the state has without due process abducted a person, that the person's whereabouts are not known, and it is not known whether the person's alive or dead since the govt doesn't acknowledge them. Misusing it for detentions one (rightly) disagrees with is demeaning.

A proposed law in Sweden could lead to secure apps like Signal becoming unlawful. Will those who signed the open letter praising Brazil's "digital sovereignty" for banning Twitter — folks like Piketty; Zuboff; Acemoglu; C. Doctorow; Morozov; etc. — now applaud Sweden for standing up to US tech cos?

#OpenAccess #competition #academia

#JournalismIsNotACrime #FoE #censorship #India

Guess which US president said this.

Legal Theory Lexicon: Fit and Justification, buff.ly/4QEOOcG - This Lexicon entry explores Dworkin's ideas of "fit" and "justification."

Wrote for @techpolicypress.bsky.social about recent developments in India that could lead to the return of the Broadcasting Bill, or something like it which will have repercussions for expression and speech on the internet in India.

As a thought experiment, change the term "Nazi" for "Communist", or "Evangelical {Christian,Atheist}". Do you still feel the same way about the "Nazi bar" problem?

I wonder how many of the American anti-globalization activists who protested the WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999 are now arguing in favour of lower tariffs and free trade.

It is the part of Blue Sky AI discussion that I find most frustrating. There are real negatives of AI, but also real potential positives for areas like education and medicine that have been shown in randomized trials. Believing AI is all fake will only enhance the bad & not help the good.

Not to be a broken record, but AI critics who insist that AI "doesn't work" and is going to just disappear are misleading - that just isn't true, as controlled studies like this one show. There are many issues with AI & many things that need critique, but pretending it is going away is not helpful.

In India in 2022, girls outnumbered boys in undergrad degrees in the sciences, medicine, and arts. Boys outnumbered girls in engineering and commerce undergrad degrees.

Mihir Sharma: A friendless EU suddenly wants India's approval. > Brussels’ technocrats may not have planned to give off a faint air of desperation as they lined up for photographs with Modi in New Delhi. #EU #geopolitics #India www.deccanherald.com/opinion/a-fr...

#e2ee #crypto #France #privacy #surveillance #CryptoWars

One of Descartes' nicer burns on the scholastics: “The learned often employ distinctions so subtle that they disperse the natural light, and they detect obscurities even in matters that are perfectly clear to peasants” - Regulae, AT X 442

In 2019, US govt media @rferl.org.web.brid.gy was painting Zelenskiy a puppet of Ukraine's richest oligarch. RFE/RL has changed their characterization, despite Zelenskiy banning 11 political parties and freezing the assets of his political rivals. www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-ze...

Elon Musk fires 18F, the tech team that's been working on improving US govt efficiency via tech. www.deccanherald.com/world/musks-...

L💙VE to love free libraries? Then you’ll love this! Our Library Love fundraiser campaigns for the 'Right To Read' through free, anti-caste & feminist public libraries #ForALL Likla and Kripa are making an amazing offer. So scan the QR code on slide 2 to donate OR Click www.fln.org.in/librarylove/

Free Library+People Power = Library L💙VE Our Library Love fundraiser campaigns for the 'Right To Read' through free, anti-caste & feminist public libraries #ForALL Pervin Saket is making an amazing offer. So scan the QR code on slide 2 to donate OR Click www.fln.org.in/librarylove/