Sven Read

For two years, student-led protests have raged against Aleksandar Vučić and his corrupt government in Serbia. Today, in parliamentary elections, he was toppled. One of the most sustained protest movements in recent European history has succeeded. Resistance works.

Close Read No. 3: Where did the time go? NN/g asked 521 UX practitioners: AI makes the work faster, and the time saved disappears anyway. Plus: fewer juniors, agents learning taste, and 13 AI models with the same "controversial" take on humans.

Heartbreaking. youtu.be/5x9dkYIRb58?...

Close Read No. 2: Taste is what's left. When anyone can ship something that works, the person behind the keyboard makes the difference. Plus: what to teach our kids, and OpenAI agents that switched off their own monitoring, then said they didn't.

computers are now battlefields

To be honest, I am surprised that he can swim.

Kind of amazing how fast things are moving now, after years of slow progress. And all thanks to an American president who is trying everything to stop exactly this from happening.

NEU: Monatelang erklärte die Union, das Informationsfreiheitsgesetz müsse aus Sicherheitsgründen eingeschränkt werden. Sie weigerte sich aber, Belege zu liefern. Wir verklagten also das Innenministerium, um eine Auskunft zu erzwingen. Ergebnis: Es gibt einfach keine. fragdenstaat.de/artikel/klag...

I have been trying to think of what Trump’s hideous “ballroom” project reminds me of — and I finally have it — it is Nicolai Ceausescu’s infamous and unfinished House of the People in communist Romania, which also brought awfulness to a lovely downtown.

The first Close Read is out. NN/g asked 120 AI "synthetic users" the same question as 604 real people. Same conclusion, far less variety, which is rather concerning if the surprises are why you do research. Plus: job hunting, agent against agent.

Nerd highlander vibe. Love it.

Go to your camera roll and search “boat” and then post a photograph of a boat you like. Old Thai tourist boat - Phi Phi Island 2024

Indeed a shocking precedent. This will have consequences.

1/ The Musk-Trump decision to degrade Ukraine's Starlink access as a pressure tactic is a disaster not just for the United States' reputation but for the entire US defence industry. Musk's action may end up burning the whole industry. ⬇️

❗️ Russia carried out one of the largest strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure: more than 15 important electricity generation and transmission facilities in various regions of Ukraine were attacked, – Zelensky.

Palestinian skateboarder in Gaza doing a kickflip over an unexploded US-made (in Garland, Texas) Mk. 84 2000lb aerial bomb, provided to Israel as one of many tens of thousands of aerial bombs in the 1,000 and 2,000lb class included in US military assistance.

Ich habe gestern 90 Minuten mit Lesern zu meiner Kolumne „Ja, Migranten zahlen Ihre Rente“ online diskutiert. Es waren für mich emotionale 90 Minuten, aus zwei Gründen und mit zwei zentralen Punkten… 🧵 www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2...

Voting or commenting appreciated ❤️

That was a fun problem that took some time to solve.

Sounds kinda cool, to be honest. it.slashdot.org/story/26/10/...

Spent hours checking every price and feature against the vendors own pages. Happy to announce that we up there with the best.

Um das richtig zu verstehen: die AfD steht kurz vor der Regierung. CDU-Politiker unterstützen sie dabei & lügen danach. Merz verbreitet Verschwörungstheorien. Weber will die Brandmauer weghaben. Aber die Linke, die Berlin für 17 Jahre mitregiert hat, ist die größte Gefahr für die Demokratie?

Sounds a bit gay to me.

1/ Russian sources expect that as well as purchasing Russian oil and diesel, Donald Trump will provide Russia with spare parts to repair the refineries damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes. They anticipate that Trump's fuel deal will lead to a Russian victory. ⬇️

I agree, closed software maybe coming to an end: www.heise.de/en/news/Open...

A guy apparently just rebuilt Adobe Photoshop using Claude Opus 5.5 and it’s available for free and open source: getartcraft.com/apps/photocr...

Interesting new model coming from Germany (finally!). It’s open weights and has a finetuning for acting responsibly: aleph-alpha.com/en/kolibri/

This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever

1) Die AfD plant in Sachsen-Anhalt gemeinsam mit dem BSW, nur noch ihre eigenen Landtags(vize)präsidenten zuzulassen. Damit können alle anderen Fraktionen gegängelt werden. 2) Sie wollen die Ausschüsse so besetzen, dass die AfD überall Blockademehrheit hat. Nur noch AfD-Themen auf der Tagesordnung.

THIS IS HUGE: Hat die #AfD Sachsen-Anhalt ihren Wahlkampf maßgeblich aus Fraktions-, also Steuermitteln bestritten und sich dadurch einen Wettbewerbsvorteil erkauft? Damit wäre die Wahl anfechtbar, sagen mehrere Staatsrechtler*innen.

Life hack.

“What is happening in the equatorial Pacific is jaw-dropping and could well mark one of the biggest global weather upheavals in a millennium,” said Prof Bill McGuire in the Guardian on Tuesday The hyper El Nino continues to obliterate records www.theguardian.com/environment/...

A Thiel-Altman-&-Andreessen backed “network state” called Praxis is planning a tech colony in Uruguay & has a nonbinding deal w/ a development led by a former advisor to Javier Milei. Located a short ferry ride from Argentina, the move aligns w/ the “Tech Bros”’ increasing interest in the region. 1/

Xi is like, "Who the fuck are these weirdos?"

Die Verleihung des Axel #Springer Awards an Peter #Thiel ist ein schwerwiegender Fehler. Seine Innovationskraft ist unbestritten. Doch der Preis würdigt ausdrücklich auch seine gesellschaftliche Wirkung und Ziele – und legitimiert damit seine antidemokratische #Ideologie. 1/n

finally, real benchmarks www.assbench.com

Medien- und Politikkrise in einem Bild :) "Für das Abschneiden der CDU ist Bundeskanzler Friedrich Merz schadet."

"Trump did an incredible job negotiating for things we already had in Greenland," said one critic.

This is real and I have encountered it multiple times during the last 20 years. Always laughing at them at for just copying everything and being incapable of being as innovative as we are.

Probably got diverted to the US in a last ditch attempt to lower gas prices for the midterms.

You'd think the fact that the son of the President of the "party of family values" 2nd marriage is to the daughter of Epstein's banker and it was funded by a Rusisan oligarch involved in the mass kidnap of Ukrainian kids during a KGB agent's illegal war Would be bigger news..