M Berk
@mberk.bsky.social
670 followers 410 following 920 posts
Ethics. Political theory. Product management. Cat pics. Privacy. Consultant. I teach stuff. Flawed mortal, fumbling toward enlightenment.
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mberk.bsky.social
“Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.”

—Sojourner Truth
mberk.bsky.social
Companies sure did work hard to shift the narrative on this.

And who wouldn’t want to reduce capital expenditures on real estate by millions per year? It’s truly confusing, and I’ve run thru the arguments, and am left thinking there must be a hidden incentive or motive, b/c it’s not rational.
mberk.bsky.social
An all-browser and mobile operating system opt out is coming by January 2027.

Newsom had previously vetoed the same legislation a year ago (and the Assembly had a veto-proof majority but didn’t use it).
Reposted by M Berk
erikahall.bsky.social
I've been through so many tech hype cycles that if they were tree rings I'd be a fucking sequoia.
Reposted by M Berk
pwnallthethings.bsky.social
Tragic news from Canada where the Canadian Supreme Court has gone from the official dress on the left to the one on the right
Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in bright red wooly gowns, with a beige trim. It looks sort of like a Santa robe The Canadian Supreme court. Everyone is dressed in black gowns with a bright white kravat, and two thin red vertical lines on the side of the robe
mberk.bsky.social
A great owl rescue story
folklorewales.com
Six weeks ago, I picked up a year-old tawny owl with a broken leg off the main road near our home and dropped him off at our nearest vet.

After a few days, I received one of the most bizarre phone calls I’ve ever had, asking “So when are you coming to pick up your owl?” 🧵
Tawny owl
mberk.bsky.social
That’s a whole mess of hardware disaster. I’m so sorry!

Capable as you are, could you just hand it to someone else to fix, and save the despair and rage and frustration?
mberk.bsky.social
Flagging this for a listen, but I’ll note that Mark’s stuff has made me think in the past, and I’m a big fan of that.
remakingmanhood.bsky.social
My appearance on @milleridriss.bsky.social ’ Man Up podcast just dropped. On this episode, we talk about how to protect our sons from extremist influencers. open.spotify.com/episode/7AgA...
Episode 2: Be a Man
open.spotify.com
Reposted by M Berk
joejerome.com
If “caution” means allowing a defendant’s illegal behavior to persist, it defeats the purpose of finding liability in the first place and undermines the law enforcement function of antitrust law.

www.promarket.org/2025/09/23/a...
Appraising the Google Search Antitrust Remedies - ProMarket
Erik Hovenkamp and A. Douglas Melamed discuss what Judge Amit Mehta got right and wrong in his remedy decision in the Google Search antitrust case.
www.promarket.org
mberk.bsky.social
Well, hello, sweetheart 😻
mberk.bsky.social
I have been in the Midwest this week, and I have one thing to say:

So much cologne
mberk.bsky.social
Trying to opt out of data sharing/sales in the Uber app.

It sends me to a website to log in (despite being logged into the app). In order to log in, I have to give permission to share my data with 3rd parties who may message me.

#privacy
Reposted by M Berk
mobydickatsea.bsky.social
one most perilous and long voyage ended, only begins a second; and a second ended, only begins a third, and so on, for ever and for aye
Reposted by M Berk
mberk.bsky.social
I used to measure my life in coffee spoons and book marginalia.

Now I measure it in 2FA tokens.
mberk.bsky.social
Came across this American Philosophical Association office notes in which they came out against the practice of holding job interviews in hotel rooms (“bedrooms”) during annual conferences, and hoped it would be enough to change the habit. Woof.

www.jstor.org/stable/27645...
Appendix to Board Minutes on JSTOR
Appendix to Board Minutes, Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 79, No. 5 (May, 2006), pp. 29-103
www.jstor.org
mberk.bsky.social
This is also how disability insurance and law works.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
This is it, essentially. The core of it. The goal of ICE detention in the mass deportation system is to make people give up their case without fighting; to have an officer say “if you want to see a judge and plead your case, you’re going to be jailed for months and months, so why not give up now?”
kyledcheney.bsky.social
Advocates say the Trump administration’s goal is clear: make the pre-deportation process so punitive that targets give up and leave voluntarily. The administration and its allies see the detention policy as a corrective to decades of catch-and-release policies www.politico.com/news/2025/09...
Reposted by M Berk
purplepingers.bsky.social
Somehow not the most insane term I’ve seen in a residential lease.
mberk.bsky.social
Welp, I’m “decided to take my graduation dates off of my LinkedIn profile” years old.
mberk.bsky.social
Bring back mp3s
yeeeerika.bsky.social
i don't want to hear your most boomer complaint. what's your most millennial complaint?
mberk.bsky.social
I’m rolling.

Have seen this so many times, but it is exactly what I needed today. 💥
mberk.bsky.social
I watch an episode of Get Smart at least once a week.
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
“Get Smart” premieres 60 years ago tonight, on NBC.

“I was sick of looking at all those nice, sensible situation comedies,” Mel Brooks said. “They were such distortions of life. .. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first.”