Joel grayson webbeR

Joel grayson webbeR

@j15r.com

Cofounder @fullstory.com, ex-Googler, reformed game developer, drummer.

425 followers667 following860 posts

I’m donating as much as I can afford. We should all do what we can to support the good people of the Twin Cities, who didn’t ask to be made the front lines of a federal assault. They’re standing up all the same, and should be doing so with all of our help.

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

. 📢 HANDS OFF NYC 📍 Trump Tower, 725 5th Ave, NYC 📆 Sat. Sept. 13 ⏰ 12-1 pm Trump has threatened to send military troops into New York City! Join us at Trump Tower and tell Trump: 🪧HANDS OFF NYC! 🪧 NO TROOPS! 🪧NYC WILL NOT BE OCCUPIED! This is a nonviolent Rise and Resist action. #HandsOffNYC .

Need yet more reasons to reduce the number of cars stuffed into our cities? Turns out the dark ones parked everywhere can easily increase the temperature in their vicinity by 3.8ºC! Cities must increasingly take heat into account in their design and rules, as they've always done historically.

Brent Toderian@brenttoderian.bsky.social

GOOD THREAD: One more consequence of too many parked cars in cities (and one more reason to replace surface parking with trees and people-places). All those parked cars are making hot cities even hotter. (at a minimum, choose a white car.) #UrbanHeat

Let's assume this interviewer doesn't have the disproof of this bald faced lie immediately at hand. Then where's the follow-up where they do the legwork to validate or disprove her assertions, and air it in a prominent timeslot? Otherwise it's not journalism, just a mouthpiece for the regime.

Colette Delawalla, PhD@cdelawalla.bsky.social

Hi. I’m the executive director of the organization that had the honor of hosting the FEMA Katrina Declaration and I can confirm this is a lie. NICE TRY, KRISTI! @standupforscience.bsky.social @atrupar.com

100% this. Isolation, division, fear, and anger have played no small role in getting us to this point. They won't be the tools that get us back on track. Except maybe a little anger, pointed in the right direction!

they/them might be giants ☭@babadookspinoza.bsky.social

Absolutely everyone is feeling the crushing weight of the present historical moment in some way or another, and the trick is to allow that fact to lead you to solidarity with others rather than bitterness and misdirected anger, which seems to be the dominant response right now.

Funny what a difference a little financial support makes, especially without onerous means testing. @scottsantens.com in case you're not already aware of this study.

NPR@npr.org

To save the lives of infants and small kids in lower resource countries, there are a handful of tools: anti-malarial drugs, bed nets and vaccines. A massive experiment in rural Kenya suggests another.

Very glad Google's releasing this data: a median Gemini query burns 0.24 Wh and 0.26 ml of water. That's about 1s of microwave use, and 5 drops of water. Yes, they should release more data, and queries can vary. But it's good to have some transparency. www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1...

technologyreview.comIn a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt usesIt’s the most transparent estimate yet from one of the big AI companies, and a long-awaited peek behind the curtain for researchers.

This is also why I hate it when Altman and Co go around telling everyone we're going to need terawatts of cheap power. We want model providers competing over efficiency, not just trying to scale up as though energy were free.

And for completeness, I do realize that we have to take the amortized energy cost of training into consideration to get a full accounting. I'd love to get a transparent breakdown of this aspect as well, and where it's trending. E.g., are we spending more or less as we train newer/larger models?

📣 QUACK! 🦆

Stand Up for Science!@standupforscience.net

🐤Promise you this is one you'll want to say you were a part of... Help us get our 'ducks in a row' and IMPEACH AND REMOVE THAT DANG QUACK!!!! 📣🦆📣🦆📣🦆📣🦆 Link here: tinyurl.com/sufsci

I hate that I have to keep saying this in so many different contexts, but... This will go down in history as one of the dumbest self-inflicted wounds any state has managed to pull off.

Zeke Hausfather@zekehausfather.com

The US is building a record amount of electricity generation capacity in 2025 to meet rapidly growing demand. And its overwhelmingly clean energy, with a bit of gas. Meanwhile the Trump administration wants to stop permitting of new solar and wind projects.

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Replying to @tmwillia.bsky.social

If they can bring these pieces together, it will be terrifyingly similar to the (well-documented) use of incarceration for trivial infractions, to create cheap labor in the reconstruction-era South. We already have corrupt school -> private-prison pipelines. So the pieces _are_ coming together...

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Replying to @democracydocket.com

“all data [...] will be kept securely and treated consistently with the Privacy Act.” Until they begin filing specious complaints to strike voters from the rolls. Anyone doubt that this would be used to nationalize and scale up voter suppression efforts, like we've seen here in GA and elsewhere?

Thanks to @davekarpf.bsky.social for slogging through this garbage so the rest of us don't have to! This is what you get when SV "thinkers" learn to enjoy the smell of their own farts. I'm not a tech pessimist, but this is the kind of thinking that creates far more problems than it solves.

Dave Karpf@davekarpf.bsky.social

Next book on my reading pile: “Boom: bubbles and the end of stagnation.” Pretty sure this is gonna turn into another hate-read performance. 🤷‍♂️

TIL @billamend.bsky.social is on here, with some great dunks on the regime. It would be hysterical if the fine people of DC were to rain sandwiches down from the rooftops. If anyone in DC wants to organize a sandwich throwing party, I'll personally pay for about 10k sandwiches. Not joking. DM me.

Bill Amend@billamend.bsky.social

Tonight’s dumb napkin cartoon…

Not the most important part of the story, but why the actual fuck is Antoni dressed like an 1890s robber baron? Oh, and apparently showing up for the insurrection is the main qualification to run the BLS. God help us... www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus... (h/t @donmoyn.bsky.social)

nbcnews.comTrump Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee was a 'bystander' outside Capitol on Jan. 6, White House saysThe White House said E.J. Antoni was in town for meetings unrelated to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

This is terrifying: "150 weaponized Firefox extensions. nearly 500 malicious executables. Dozens of phishing websites." Do I have a little schadenfreude about crypto scams? Maybe. But the ability to scale scams this rapidly with AI is concerning. blog.koi.security/greedy-bear-...

blog.koi.securityGreedy Bear —Massive Crypto Wallet Attack Spans Across Multiple VectorsToday Koi exposes one of the most notorious attack groups we’ve yet to encounter — Greedy Bear. The group lunched a coordinated attack…

I don't understand the point this interviewer is making. He says "deliver services by raising revenue, but don't raise taxes". Where the hell does he think revenue comes from? I'm seriously interested if someone can steelman his argument. Because at a glance it makes no sense to me.

Zohran Kwame Mamdani@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Replying to @motherjones.com

This is epistemic nihilism -- facts and opinions are interchangeable, and serve only to support a desired outcome. We know the admin behaves this way, but when they ignore science, we must make them say, publicly, "we ignore science in our decisions." See how that resonates with the people.

Something tells me the markets aren't going to respond to this with deference to Trump. People tend to behave a bit more rationally when money's on the line.

Timothy McBride@mcbridetd.bsky.social

The markets should respond VERY NEGATIVELY to attempts to intimidate the people who try to provide accurate information to all of us, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) does every day. Markets need accurate information not influenced by politics.

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Replying to @brenttoderian.bsky.social

I'm really of two minds about this. On one hand, I largely agree with the author (and the hyperloop was an obvious boondoggle). But I do see that Waymo and others have made huge strides in autonomy. I just want to see that progress applied to transit solutions like automated, flexible bus services.

The regime is pursuing policies that push the US towards an explicit ethno-state. I can't imagine this would survive constitutional muster (though who knows under the Roberts Court). But the intention is clear, and shares much in common with Putin's resurrection of the Russian Orthodox church.

This post is unavailable.

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Replying to @brooklynspoke.bsky.social

THIS. Now if more parents would realize that the world is actually a lot safer for them than when we were young. When we started spending more time in NYC (vs Atlanta), our teens gained autonomy and confidence very rapidly. I feel far better about them walking and taking the train in NYC.

So DHS chases a guy onto private property, refuses to show id or a warrant while forcing themselves in, and arrests employees for "assault" for refusing entry. No probable cause, no warrant, just profiling. Staff calls 911, and the Ontario CA PD does... nothing. And their "statement" is horseshit.

David J. Bier@davidjbier.bsky.social

DHS has arrested two medical personnel at a surgical center in California for demanding that the officers trespassing in their building identify themselves & provide a warrant, accusing them of another.... wait for it... ASSAULT. The case shows how DHS lies relentlessly to violate the Constitution

See also this local news article: abc7.com/post/ice-age... And the GoFundMe for his legal defense: www.gofundme.com/f/help-him-r... [It's frustrating to deal with these situations on a one-off basis, but I'll do what I can while also contributing to orgs that address the problem systemically.]

abc7.comICE agents detain landscaper inside Ontario surgical clinicAn immigration enforcement operation at Ontario Advanced Surgical Center in Ontario is drawing criticism from immigrant rights advocates after a landscaper was taken into custody.

Joel grayson webbeR reposted

Tired of letting algorithms divine what you care about, decide what you see, and distract you with ads? Try the Marginalian newsletter—an oasis of undistracted inspiration and illumination, free, ad-free, algorithm-free, fully human since 2006: themarginalian.org/newsletter

themarginalian.orgsunday newsletterIf you yearn for depth and delight without the distraction of a social media feed, if you are weary of algorithms deciding what you see and read and constellate into reality, try the Marginalian Su…

Stephen Miller's goons (yes, that fucking guy) are arguing that any attempt to recruit diverse students is illegal. As well as income-based scholarships, because they benefit minorities disproportionately. This is a bald-faced attempt to reinforce racial hierarchies, not establish "meritocracy".

Matt Pearce@mattdpearce.com

INSEPARABLE??? www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/hi...

Any functional difference between "inauguration committee" and "Nigerian scammer"? At least the latter contributes to the Nigerian economy. "Sent over $250,000 to a [...] Nigerian scammer, thinking they were donating to President Trump’s inaugural committee." www.theblock.co/post/362339/...

theblock.coMoonPay executives may have sent $250,000 to Nigerian scammer, DoJ filing suggestsThe scammer, likely a man based in Nigeria, used a common tactic to make fraudulent emails appear legitimate.

The first time I saw this outside our apartment on West 79th, I had no idea it was a thing. Then this amazing glow started creeping up the street from Riverside. Everyone just stopped what they were doing, and walked into the street to watch. Really a magical moment.

Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social

Manhattanhenge got some love this weekend. 💕 #NYC @newyorkcitykopp.bsky.social

Terrifying piece from @404media.co on ICE's use of an existing national insurance claim database to hunt people down. ISO exists to help with insurance claims and fraud. Its use for this purpose is a glaring abuse, and a perfect example of why we need strict limits. www.404media.co/ice-is-searc...

404media.coICE Is Searching a Massive Insurance and Medical Bill Database to Find Deportation TargetsThe database, called ISO ClaimSearch, is nearly all encompassing and contains details on more than 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills.

See also: Their piece on Palantir contracting with ICE to build out high-scale merged analysis of this and other databases. Many of these uses (e.g., of SSA databases) are flatly illegal, and risk eroding what little trust remains in gov't stewardship of our data. www.404media.co/ice-just-pai...

404media.coICE Just Paid Palantir Tens of Millions for ‘Complete Target Analysis of Known Populations’The records show that Palantir is actively working on the technical infrastructure underpinning the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts which could soon impact U.S. citizens.