Ben West 🦋

This is more true than we realize. #memes #power #funny #notFunny #ethics #politics #LateStageCapitalism

Fucking hell was this BC election a bad idea. The implication for the people and the province are horrific. Siiiiiigh #bcpoli

off the fucking rails. a rogue government.

In Finland, rewetting forestry-drained peatlands could yield climate benefits within decades, a @restorationecology.bsky.social study suggests. eos.org/articles/res... Read more in our October issue: eos.org/themes/secre...

Apple's Inactivity Reboot feature made it harder for cops to break into locked iPhones after 72 hours of inactivity. @lorenzofb.bsky.social obtained a video that shows how a new tool offered by GrayKey can crack that. @josephcox.bsky.social has more. Watch now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzC...

I have resigned from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Independent Standards Board. The Protocol is openly violating its own rules and has effectively delegated forest carbon accounting standards to a secret, industry-led working group. ghgpolicy.org/s/2026-06-08...

Big tech and AI companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. Big tech and AI companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. Big tech and AI companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves. abcnews.com/amp/Politics...

Detained immigrants at Georgia ICE facility launch mass hunger strike | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

"Computer: end program, and save."

This was awesome. Thanks @katharinehayhoe.com @bernwoodsplacky.bsky.social and @tccollab.bsky.social! #climate #ClimateSolutions #ClimateConversations

Knowledge is Power (so ban books): The bans involved a “record number of unique titles” – exceeding 7,000 – involving more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators. Analysts found 114 school districts which banned books during the school year, “the highest number ever for a single year”.

Banning 1984 is... Orwellian. And keeping books that help you understand gender and identity out of the hands of kids is so harmful /hateful. #booksky

U.S. investigators reportedly believe that unidentified hackers broke into an oil supertanker's propulsion system as the vessel headed toward Texas this summer, which does not seem great. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

New from @timnitgebru.blacksky.app and me: "It is high time for us to regulate usage of systems sold as “AI”, not because they are magical machines, but because they are error-prone products that shouldn’t be used in high stakes scenarios." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Meta's "Muse" launched with a nasty zero day flaw that gave hackers the ability to spy on Mac users, openly gives root access to people pretending to be Muse agents, and invited strangers over to another guy's house without telling him

BREAKING: The Trump administration is using a grant program from the 1980s to force cities around the US to funnel their ongoing collection of Flock, Axon, and other ALPR data into large federal surveillance centers that fall under the White House’s jurisdiction, 404 Media has learned

Over the summer, I visited Ukraine’s hidden offices and testing fields to meet the startups, soldiers, and government engineers making cutting-edge AI weapons at a pace the rest of the world is scrambling to match. Read more @fastcompany.com www.fastcompany.com/91611099/ins...

WHO DID THIS

We can’t allow this man to get within striking distance of a viable presidential candidacy.

This conversation with @naomiaklein.bsky.social and @astra.bsky.social couldn't be more timely. With the AI industry talking about *its own products' potential to cause human extinction* we drill into who might still want to build such technology, and why. Hint: it's in the title of their new book.

Flock taught cops how they could surveil the No Kings protests and “small parades” using a mix of Flock’s technology and law enforcement’s own databases in a webinar last year. Here's a short clip from the webinar: @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports: www.404media.co/flock-taught...

FBI tells me it's investigating the suspected breach at IDScan after a crime site let anyone to search the driver's licenses of 150+ million people, including the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. A DOD spox. told me it's aware and "evaluating" the report. Bypass for ad-blockers: archive.ph/5xFMq

Super scary - an identity theft service called Nexus is offering digital scans of identity documents for more than 170 million people in North America, including scans at airports and cannabis dispensaries. Krebs says the details check out. krebsonsecurity.com/2026/09/fbi-...

The U.S. ambassador to Canada reposted this

Surveillance cameras are in Canada now... youtube.com/watch?v=5ojU... #deflock #cdnpoli #surveillance #privacy

A democratic socialist AND a member of the Chickasaw Nation?!

I could not be more grateful for @avilewis.ca being out there speaking on behalf of Canada in the midst if the most stupid trade war in history. youtu.be/5gEJOTQg0pY?... And thank you to @democracynow.org who have been doing some of the most important journalism on earth for decades. #cdnpoli

We joined @wearecasa.bsky.social @eff.org @georgetownprivacy.bsky.social along with other civil rights & privacy groups calling out data brokers who are sharing Maryland residents sensitive data with federal agents in violation of state law. www.npr.org/2026/08/20/n...

It was just racist bullshit

So, uh, historically in China, Iran and Russia, a lot of cyber criminals are employees of intelligence agencies either moonlight in crime or intelligence. Tools from a major government contractor (I-Soon) in China were regularly used in crime. Someone is going to accidentally start a war.

469 federal judges ruled that ICE’s July 2025 detention memo was an illegal distortion of long-settled policy, triggering a historic judicial rebuke

“Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today's peace.” – Unknown via @momentumdash.bsky.social

Well worth listening to what Ayisha Siddiqa has to say — on climate, law, and culture. Always a pleasure to be in conversation with her. Bonus: includes a stunning poem she wrote. ayanaelizabeth.substack.com/p/on-the-rig...

UNREAL: New Mexico filed a lawsuit against Todd Blanche and DOJ for “stonewalling” its criminal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein in the state. Blanche is still engaged in a cover up for Trump! Yet GOP is going to confirm him. GOP equals Guardians of Pedophiles! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

A central part of why it seems like powerful, rich people live in a consequence-free world is that the social incentives to hold them to account have withered. www.ctinsider.com/columnist/ar... 𝟏𝟐-𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞-𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

“Why is climate action so difficult?” Mainly because the people who benefit most from not acting just made $93 billion, about $700,000 per minute, in three months. www.theguardian.com/business/ng-...