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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller
@ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
300 followers 4 following 1.7K posts
I lead technology at ProPublica and write speculative fiction. This is a personal account. Every day, I write about tech, democracy, and society at https://werd.io. More […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://werd.social/@ben, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 2h
This is a form of advertising I can get behind. https://usa.streetsblog.org/2025/10/08/this-newsroom-is-looking-for-its-next-big-tip-on-the-train
This Newsroom Is Looking For Its Next Big Tip on the Train
Investigative journalists at ProPublica are betting that the next big tipster is riding the rails right now — and reaching out to find them.
usa.streetsblog.org
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 3h
Likewise, when people say that woke has gone too far.

No, it hasn't gone far enough. It was just getting started. There were hundreds of years of oppression that arguably never really ended.

It's almost as if lots of people want to frame disparity as reasonableness.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 3h
It always amuses me when the rights, protections, and entitlements I enjoyed up until my early thirties are described as outrageous socialism that could never work.

Treating people well isn't a fundamentalist position. And in very many countries it's just generally accepted that it's how you do it.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 4h
I like this very much. https://theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art
A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal
This is a comic about AI art.
theoatmeal.com
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d
I was hoping the Zillow integration with the new apps feature for OpenAI would allow me to use the prompt:

"Find me a three bedroom home in a progressive city with great schools for $600,000 or less."

But it can't do that. In effect it's a command line prompt with fuzzy arguments. It'll do one […]
Original post on werd.social
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d
"The majority of those killed by Israel’s offensive in the strip have been civilians, and the overall total now exceeds 67,000. Entire families have been wiped out in a single airstrike. Sometimes, only a single individual, frequently a child, is left alive." It must end […]
Original post on werd.social
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d
"When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here are six steps experts suggest to help you through the external appeal process." […]
Original post on werd.social
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Reposted by Ben Werdmuller
mattblaze.federate.social.ap.brid.gy
Matt Blaze @mattblaze.federate.social.ap.brid.gy · 1d
Apparently theres a new wave of people joining mastodon, and with them a new wave of self-appointed cops "welcoming" them with long lists of mostly fictitious "rules" they need to follow.

This is a social media platform, with many of different ways to use it. It's fine. Mostly, just try to be […]
Original post on federate.social
federate.social
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 2d
My one niggle with my NewsBlur / Reeder setup is that unsubscribing is a nightmare. I'm fed up of hate-reading Marginal Revolution so I've unsubscribed, but it keeps popping up back into my feeds, unannounced and uninvited, with no sense of when it's outlived its welcome, like libertarianism itself.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 3d
Lately I’ve been entertaining dreams of starting a bookstore with a cafe that hosts meetups, talks, and open mics and things. Somewhere out of the way where it can be a refuge for people who want to find like-minded community. But also, it livestreams the music and talks as a video podcast.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d
Microblogging is terrible. It's all context collapse and unbridled id: notifications as conversation. We need more long-form, considered discussion. The internet needs more nuance and structured thought.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d
To my mind, the Blair-Kushner deal is the most colonialist thing possible (and the description alone makes me shudder). But if it actually ends the violence, the right thing will have happened. The most important thing is to stop the killing and protect those innocent people.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d
If we're going to start allowing alive people to be on US currency: let's just set it up so that anyone can scan their face and order a batch of $1 coins with themselves on it. Maybe require minimum orders of 50 with extra fees. Embed something to easily detect counterfeit funds. Ka-ching.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d
Easily the best film I've seen all year. Quietly amazing. Highly recommended. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/movies/nowhere-special-review.html
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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d
Many of our colleagues' communities are being directly targeted by an increasingly authoritarian, anti-immigrant regime. As managers and leaders, we have a duty of care. It starts with listening. #democracy […]
Original post on werd.social
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d
Coming from an organization that (rightly) bans AI meeting assistants, I really like this. It's self-hosted, private, and free for individuals. But they charge for organizational / enterprise installations and support. A perfect open source business model. https://meetily.zackriya.com/
Meetily (Meetly AI) - Privacy-First AI Meeting Assistant | Otter.ai Alternative
Meetily is the #1 open source AI meeting assistant with 100% local processing. Get real-time transcription, AI-powered meeting summaries, and complete privacy - no cloud dependencies. Free alternative to Otter.ai, Granola, Fireflies, Fathom & Tactiq.
meetily.zackriya.com
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d
@darren Sadly, I don't have that excuse!
ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d
It turns out that "we're protecting democracy and our industry is dying, please pay us money" is not a great sales pitch. #media https://werd.io/dont-dwell-on-democracy-and-other-new-findings-about-how-to-market-local-news/
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d
Very off-kilter day. I feel slightly out of phase with everyone and getting odd reactions. Genuinely can't tell if I'm talking nonsense, not conveying myself well, or if I'm feeling particularly self-conscious today, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whichever it is, it's unsettling.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
@Downes Sometimes it's the only way to move forward. But there are only some kinds of things that can be tolerably disagreed with and still committed to.
ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
"Disagree but commit" is an important principle, but man, it feels like I've been doing it a lot lately.
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
If we're going to revive McCarthyist politics, we need to revive McCarthy-era resistance. This makes sense to me. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oct/01/jane-fonda-committee-first-amendment-trump
Jane Fonda relaunches free speech group started by her father during the McCarthy era
In wake of the Trump administration’s censorship threats, the actor re-established the Committee for the First Amendment with A-list support
www.theguardian.com
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
This simple, repeatable framework for building a culture of open feedback has been a part of my toolkit for over a decade. #Teams https://werd.io/the-one-on-one-gift-exchange/
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Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
This is fun. By these measures, the country I've lived in with the most freedom is the Netherlands; the country I've lived in with the least is the United States. What about you? https://freedomhouse.org/country/scores
Countries and Territories
Freedom House rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 208 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report. Individual freedoms—ranging from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law—can be affected by state or nonstate actors. Click on a country name below to access the full country narrative report.
freedomhouse.org
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ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d
"In the 2024-25 school year, PEN found that more than 3,750 unique titles were banned in 87 school districts across the country. Over the last four school years, the organization has tracked nearly 23,000 cases of book bans across 45 states." […]
Original post on werd.social
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