British and Australian chemists have discovered a powerful new antibiotic called pre-methylenomycin C lactone, hiding in a well-known soil bacterium. This molecule kills drug-resistant bacteria without triggering resistance. buff.ly/YlXaONo #ShareGoodNewsToo

last night at a bar I learned that they improved pinball by making machines that are entirely computers and they’re much better than what we had before

@shaw.al hi! quick question for you. I see that the ProPublica site for Politwoops says "Due to a Twitter API change, Politwoops is not currently tracking deletions. We are working to restore service soon." Is ProPublica still working on restoring service?

Bailey’s pawdicure came with this photo! Too bad she’s never seen the leaves change IRL.

at the car dealership "you should get this service you're below the mileage & have no maintenace notice for bc X amount of time has passed" "this website says otherwise" "i was trained by honda" "i'm on a honda website" "there's a lot of stuff on the internet" "including the manual, which says..."

I somehow acquired a pair of platform house slippers which really confused my husband. I look forward to confounding other people in similarly casual scenarios in the future. (Yes I’m one of the few who doesn’t do heels.)

If anyone needs me, I’ll be over here, dismissing positive feedback from the people who matter and obsessing over that one negative comment from a total stranger. I may be some time.

Our opsec is secure, DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT

For folks (and journalists) who want to search the Oversight Committee email texts, I made a database for searching the 20k text files: splendorous-chaja-f79791.netlify.app

@mrtowne.bsky.social do you think this is cheating?

As someone old enough to still mourn the fall of Sassy, I believe in my bones that Teen Vogue deserved better. (Also people need to stop underestimating young women.) www.gofundme.com/f/help-laido...

Take note, NSO Group.

NEW: I tried to explain why there are so many victims of spyware, despite the fact that its makers have been telling us for years that the tech is only intended to be used in limited cases. There are several reasons, including how the spyware systems are designed, and how powerful they are.

"appearing to close his eyes"

A bit of transparency into the impossible nature of trust & safety at scale. I hope people will recognize that one reason why other platforms never talk about this stuff is it often leads to people yelling at the trust & safety team. But this kind of transparency is good and useful.

For anyone who saw my HOPE or DEF CON talks, I'd like to report that I am the proud parent of a beautiful new Monstera that I'm committed to keeping alive.

This is also one of MY favorite things that’s ever happened on the internet!

“Every participant who was detained by authorities & had biometrics enabled, said they were violently forced to unlock their phone. […]” The research is clear: those with biometrics lost the power to resist device searches. Only using passcodes had some ability to refuse, delay, or obscure access.

Texting and messaging scam attempts have increased by 50% in the past year, with young adults ages 18-29 experiencing the sharpest rise of any age group. See our report with @aspendigital.bsky.social & @gca.bsky.social: innovation.consumerreports.org/2025-Consume... #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth

i somehow completely missed that the AMAZING Amythyst Kiah was playing in Phoenix and while she was playing I was *completely bombing* an open mic and could have had a nice evening instead. Major major bummer.

🎶🎶some of them want to block you some of them want to be blocked by you

one time someone asked me what al dente meant and I told them it was Italian for "good enough" and I still think about this when I cook

Excellent explainer from @yaelwrites.com and @consumerreports.org on the new kick-butt iPhone #security feature. Let's hope Android adopts it, too. This is progress. innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i...

Bailey turned ten today!!! Loving every moment with the world’s sweetest, most loving, most playful chiweenie.

I wrote about Apple’s new iPhone security feature. innovation.consumerreports.org/apples-new-i...

When you book a flight through major travel sites, a data broker owned by U.S. airlines will sell details about your flight—your name, credit card used, and where you’re flying to the government. We found out how to opt-out of ARC selling your travel data. A guide: www.404media.co/how-to-opt-o...

the password to the louvre surveillance server was "louvre" www.thesocialpost.it/2025/11/02/f...

“Carpe Diem” and “YOLO” are just Memento Mori with better PR

I have a quick Halloween update to BADBOOL! 🎃👻🧙 That's the big ass data broker opt-out list I maintain, helping simplify the process of manually removing your data from people search sites. I also use cute emoji. 🧵

We voted too late to mail our ballots in, so I had to drop them off in the dropbox, which means I got TWO of these amazing gila monster stickers.

Is social media dying? How much has Twitter changed as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation? Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has transformed. Here are the key take-aways 🧵 arxiv.org/abs/2510.25417

Can anyone think of a single, easy-to-understand word that means "lethal kinetic strike"? Asking for a friend. www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

one of my favorite things is when the subject of a piece threatens a journalist and the journalist responds by casually printing everything very matter of factly

My version of watercolor vs. the cover of the kit. I guess I like my leaves more supernatural!

Today's tip in @eff.org's #OptOutOctober series comes from CR’s Security Planner: Tighten your account privacy settings www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Just did this with my Drive settings, and yeah it had Gemini ticked by default without ever asking me if that was something I wanted

A cat dad is just a cat.

a man-bag is just a bag

a girlboss is just a boss, a man bun is just a bun, you don't have to gender everything, i will die on this gender-neutral hill

Oof.

Digital payment apps don't have the same fraud protections as credit cards. CR explains how to shop safer in today's tip for @eff.org's #OptOutOctober series: www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...#OptOutOctober

Very informative video from @privacyguides.org and @yaelwrites.com on data brokers and clawing back your data where you can. neat.tube/w/tMmNH9zj4d...

▶️ New video: Data Brokers Explained + what to do about them, featuring @yaelwrites.com from @consumerreports.org. By popular demand we’ve put together another interview style video. This is our highest quality video yet, and we hope you learn something new! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Monb...

TLDR; The PSF has made the decision to put our community and our shared diversity, equity, and inclusion values ahead of seeking $1.5M in new revenue. Please read and share. pyfound.blogspot.com/2025/10/NSF-... 🧵

When a chatbot gets something wrong, it’s not because it made an error. It’s because on that roll of the dice, it happened to string together a group of words that, when read by a human, represents something false. But it was working entirely as designed. It was supposed to make a sentence & it did.

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

The desperate need to accumulate more and more at the cost of everyone else’s wellbeing should be classified as a mental disorder, and I will absolutely die on this hill.

Apparently some folks are playing real dumb about skull symbols so let’s play a little game I like to call “Nazi skull or not a Nazi skull” First up, the Jolly Roger. This is a pirate skull, not a Nazi skull. It means you might get robbed, but prolly not genocided. With me so far? 1/x

important reminder: food banks usually prefer money to direct food donations because they can buy at discounted rates check with your local food bank to be sure but now is the time to help out

My guitar teacher is a genius and I had no idea how much 6/8 there was in this mostly 4/4 song but now the rhythm I was struggling with is starting to make sense.