Italy fines Apple 100 MM for "ask app not to track me across other apps"

On Trump’s orders, the National Center for Atmospheric Research will be shut down after more than 50 years as a leader in global research on climate science and monitoring. This is what authoritarian science looks like. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

“Is Europa truly dead?” a planetary scientist asked himself after some disheartening results for the moon. “Or should we broaden our perspective on other mechanisms that can sustain life?” (Spoiler: he chose the latter)🌱🦠 Read my last #AGU2025 story (for now!) at @science.org: tinyurl.com/4dd67hhw

In Marco Rubio’s twisted world, war criminals are potential business partners and those fighting hate speech and disinformation are the pinnacle of evil www.bbc.com/news/article...

I attempt to explain the FBI Epstein dump redaction failure. cybersect.substack.com/p/unredactio...

nothing like spending time with loved ones, especially in the shadow of grief!

Alito’s dissent, man … he accuses the court of “legislating from the bench” by assuming that Congress intended that President’s use of the military be *lawful.* How dare these crazy judges assume that Congress wanted the President to comply with the law!

idk what the result of the OED review was but it sort of could be qz.com/work/1541715...

Classic winter wonderland done two ways: Arizona and Chicago "Winter Wonderland" - Judy Roberts and Jackie Allen youtube.com/watch?v=pnPO...

A federal court just blocked a Texas app store age verification law from going into effect in 2026. The law would require children and teens to get parental consent to download apps like ESPN, Spotify, or YouTube. A clear First Amendment violation, but what if the law only covered social media?

Nerds and wannabe nerds: need a holiday binge? @WIRED’s “5 Levels” series is nice. They have experts explain complex topics--like Time, CRISPR, or Machine Learning--at 5 levels of difficulty, from a child to a peer. Start with Brian Greene on time: youtu.be/TAhbFRMURtg

throw back to the times around when I was a senior in high school... check out the film canisters! "Anna Sui Spring 1995 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show" www.vogue.com/fashion-show...

Repost far and wide

We’ve received a few subpoenas this year. We’ve fought them off so far, but are now working on a system that encrypts your activities on CourtListener so that it is subpoena-proof.

The game is rigged. Burn it all down. Buy or rent the #RunningManMovie at home on Digital TODAY. With hours of extra goodies. Enjoy! @runningmanmovie paramnt.us/RunningMan

Worth bringing back this briefer on how encryption protects and promotes human rights www.ohchr.org/en/documents...

The Biggest Math Breakthroughs of 2025: A historic year for mathematics: Researchers solved a major case of Hilbert’s sixth problem, proved a sweeping new theorem about hyperbolic surfaces, and settled the longstanding 3D Kakeya conjecture. From Quanta youtube.com/watch?v=hRpc...

100 years ago, Edwin Hubble published the first* measured distance to a 'spiral nebula' (NGC 6822) using Cepheid variables. It was well outside the Milky Way, therefore a separate galaxy. Wendy Freeman discusses this discovery and its implications for cosmology. 🔭🧪⚛️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Slate Plus released the 'Political Gabfest 2025 Conundrum Show' a week early for members, featuring Stephen Colbert, and it is completely hilarious.

My 14-yo-son has recreated the climax of Back to the Future in gingerbread and I thought you should know.

We found a tape containing UNIX V4 - long believed lost - in storage at the University of Utah. Yesterday, the Computer History Museum read it! There's a raw copy of the tape up at archive.org/details/utah... , a .tar at squoze.net/UNIX/v4/ , and much more at discuss.systems/@ricci/11550...

Holidays are in full effect! 🎄 Leaning into the season with my new @internetsociety vest and using my first-ever knitting project as a coaster for some holiday cheer. 🍺🧶 Wishing everyone a very connected and protected holidays! 🌐✨

"Krampus" (Official Video) by Krankheit youtube.com/watch?v=zYXs...

The accepted talks for Real World Crypto 2026 are now online: rwc.iacr.org/2026/accepte... Thanks to everyone who submitted, and we look forward to the discussions at the symposium.

Some great talks to come at #RWC026 including 5 (!) from the Applied Cryptography research group @csateth.bsky.social on topics including Signal’s security, designing SecureDrop Next Generation, fuzzing of crypto libraries…. and one mystery topic still under embargo.

The Sunset Section 230 Act was introduced this week, but eliminating these protections would backfire. Our full statement⤵️ vist.ly/4j8qr

The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China | Karl Bode at Techdirt www.techdirt.com/2025/12/19/t...

Everytime I leave a place now, I say, "I'm gonna bounce like a castle." This is going to catch on any day now.

Policy Brief: Interconnection and Regulated Traffic Obligations - Internet Society www.internetsociety.org/resources/po...

Those "porn" age verification laws in half of states aren't just for adult content. They're so convoluted that Bluesky is requiring age checks for DMs in the UK and US states like Ohio. Oh, and there's no accountability for random age check companies to protect your sensitive personal info.

"WSIS+20 Reaffirms Multistakeholder Governance and a Lasting IGF" by Isra Rosas - Internet Society www.internetsociety.org/blog/2025/12...

"Online Age Restrictions Need Strong Rules and Independent Oversight" - @johnperrino.com , Internet Society www.internetsociety.org/blog/2025/12...

Well, I’m just as surprised as y'all are that Wordle accepted this second guess. (Sharing this with the world so everyone knows it’s officially on the Wordle acceptable guess list.)

UN sticks with multi-stakeholder internet governance model • The Register www.theregister.com/2025/12/18/w...

“Pa. high court rules that police can access Google searches without a warrant” | by Suzanne Smalley at The Record therecord.media/google-searc...

Great thread! If you're looking for good reading here, I'd recommend our paper "A Policy Framework for Intermediaries and Content" www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/u...

So it seems there's a push, again, by Congress to set an expiration date for Section 230 for the purposes of forcing reform-that is, accept reform in the next X months or lose it completely. And by "accept reform," Congress almost always, probably always, means THE BIG TECH PLATFORMS. 2 fallacies:

The US TikTok sale has been signed. The company will be controlled by a joint venture including Oracle, Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, Abu Dhabi-based MGX. Adding a UAE company really makes it clear that this was never about national security concerns. www.axios.com/2025/12/18/t...

If you thought TikTok was a surveillance hellscape under Bytedance, this rogue's gallery of new overlords should put your mind at ease

Thanks to all the marks on both sides of the aisle who enabled this by falling for a gobsmackingly stupid manufactured moral panic.

Really great piece by @charlottewillner.bsky.social & @davidsullivan.bsky.social highlighting how at the very same time Congress was claiming to want to "protect the children online," the White House was announcing that it's blocking visas for trust & safety workers who actually help kids be safe

"From Goats to Bytes: A Rural Community’s Leap into the Digital Age" | Internet Society Foundation www.isocfoundation.org/2025/12/from...

"EnergySHR: A Platform for Open-Source Data about Energy Transition Infrastructure, and People" by Alicia Takaoka of CESI at ISOC Pulse blog pulse.internetsociety.org/blog/energys...

the role of buffalo leather in the industrial revolution is amazing

"Psychic Sobriety" by Foie Gras youtube.com/watch?v=Yz_7...

The ACM Digital Library, where a LOT of computing-related research is published (I'd say at least 75% of my own publications), is now not only providing (without consent of the authors and without opt-in by readers) AI-generated summaries of papers, but they appear as the *default* over abstracts.

There's definitely a trend for faster (or sped-up) videos, whether the pace is accelerated by the creator or by the viewer. Cool to see a direct study of the consequences - congrats to @yeli.bsky.social and colleagues! pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

"Joe Ely, Texas-Born Troubadour of the Open Road, Dies at 78" www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/o...

if you missed the recent interview of Rob Reiner by Terry Gross, it was a good one.  "Rob Reiner's 'Spinal Tap' Still Goes To 11" Fresh Air