Notices by James Gleick (jamesgleick@zirk.us)

If you’re frustrated about what the online world has become, and you remember “the good old days” with nostalgia (rightly or wrongly), and you despair about our collective ability to find a way forward, this by @molly0xfff offers an important perspective. With reason for hope. She has become an essential voice, along with @pluralistic and Jaron Lanier.

https://www.citationneeded.news/we-can-have-a-different-web/

Every day before Trump’s trial gets under way pool photographers have a quick opportunity. Trump puts on a carefully arranged face, trying to look stern and fierce. The photographs are not spontaneous or natural, and the captions should explain that.

Here is a natural, unstaged shot, for contrast (credit Spencer Platt/Getty Images):

Do you have friends who STILL haven’t left the twitter? This might be what they need.
https://chrlschn.medium.com/mastodon-is-rewinding-the-clock-on-social-media-in-a-good-way-8998f6d9f1aa

How “the richest man in the world who holds a commanding position in near-earth-orbit space delivery, electronic cars and global communications spent the weekend churning up hate against Jews as the source of his financial losses.”

Josh Marshall and TPM

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/newsletter/vol-2-no-67-elon-musks-excellent-adventure-with-anti-semites-over-labor-day-weekend

Stop saying Democrats have no plan on guns. Here’s the plan.

“Once again I ask Congress to send me a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Enacting universal background checks. Requiring safe storage. Ending immunity for gun manufacturers. I will sign it immediately.”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/07/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-shooting-in-allen-texas/

I remember how excited I was in the nineties, thinking that a shaggy, open, unpredictable, democratic internet had triumphed over AOL and the other closed commercial networks. Then came surveillence-driven social media.

Could a phoenix be rising from the ashes of Twitter?

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/mastodon-highlights-pros-and-cons-of-moving-beyond-big-tech-gatekeepers/

Here is my #Introduction, with hashtags. I’m an #author and essayist, part of, and hopeful about, the #TwitterMigration.

I write about #science and #technology and their cultural effects. My books include #Chaos, The #Information, and #TimeTravel, as well as biographies of Richard #Feynman and Isaac #Newton.