I'm a citizen of Lexington, Kentucky, the United States, the world, and the digital sphere. Politically, I care about equality (and changing structures to support it), elections (that is, making them more fair and representative), and electronics (or, rather, their impact on society).
I am a believing agnostic in Community of Christ with a (mostly) cherished past as a (mostly) literalist Mormon.
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🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Blue checks on X are ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas war misinformation - The Verge'
- kudos:Looks like Masnick’s (and others’) predictions about Musk’s changes to Twitter are coming true. This isn’t what verification is for. link to “Blue checks on X are ‘superspreaders’ of Israel-Hamas war misinformation - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink | WIRED'
- kudos:Don’t know how I missed this story yesterday, but what the heck? Like the article says, nothing particularly new revealed by these stunts, but it’s still a compelling critique of Amazon. link to “Amazon Let Its Drivers’ Urine Be Sold as an Energy Drink | WIRED”
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️🖤 for Restorations: Scholars in Dialogue from Community of Christ and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by Andrew Bolton and Casey Paul Griffiths
- kudos:This was an interesting read, and there are portions of it that I expect to come back to later. However, I was surprised by how often I felt like I already knew what was being covered. Given my familiarity with both faiths, I expect that I’m not the target audience (anymore) for this volume.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'AI chatbots can infer an alarming amount of info about you from your responses | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Welp, this is scary. link to “AI chatbots can infer an alarming amount of info about you from your responses | Ars Technica”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Twitter is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood – The Markup'
- kudos:Free speech absolutism at its finest. link to “Twitter is Throttling Patreon Links, Creators Say It Undermines Their Livelihood – The Markup”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'How Ring Cameras Have the Power to Perpetuate Bias to Police – The Markup'
- kudos:Solid article right here. link to “How Ring Cameras Have the Power to Perpetuate Bias to Police – The Markup”
Alma the priesthood counter-example
- kudos:Last Sunday, I attended a Latter-day Saint Elders Quorum meeting for the first time since March of 2020, when I taught Elders Quorum on the last Sunday before Latter-day Saint services shut down because of COVID. I had enjoyed most of the sacrament meeting (I took issue with some parts of some talks, but I have to admit that I miss the size, songs, and sense of community of Latter-day Saint services), but Elders Quorum turned out to be kind of a disappointment.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup'
- kudos:Public-private surveillance is the worst of both worlds. Ring is creepy. link to “Amazon’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ Might Be Turning Police Officers Into ‘Reddit Moderators’ – The Markup”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Sellers say Amazon undercuts their prices, charges high fees : NPR'
- kudos:Amazon: also the worst. link to “Sellers say Amazon undercuts their prices, charges high fees : NPR”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Why a search engine that scans your face is dangerous : NPR'
- kudos:Facial recognition is the worst. link to “Why a search engine that scans your face is dangerous : NPR”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Church Marks Indigenous Peoples' Day | News | Community of Christ International Headquarters'
- kudos:I’ve been attending Community of Christ for over three years now, and I’m still surprised by all the little things it does that the LDS Church would never do. Both churches were born with problematic attitudes towards indigenous peoples of the Americas, but while Community of Christ isn’t perfect, I’m impressed with the steps it takes. link to “Church Marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day | News | Community of Christ International Headquarters”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation | WIRED'
- kudos:How a platform is managed has real consequences. link to “The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation | WIRED”
🔗 linkblog: mes pensées sur 'Les deepfakes pornographiques comme nouvelle arme de harcèlement scolaire - rts.ch - Technologies'
- kudos:C’est bien inquiétant, cette histoire. lien pour “Les deepfakes pornographiques comme nouvelle arme de harcèlement scolaire - rts.ch - Technologies”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '4chan users manipulate AI tools to unleash torrent of racist images | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Content moderation is a good thing. link to “4chan users manipulate AI tools to unleash torrent of racist images | Ars Technica”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Amazon reportedly used a secret algorithm to jack up prices - The Verge'
- kudos:What a gross idea. link to “Amazon reportedly used a secret algorithm to jack up prices - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Pluralistic: Kickstarting the audiobook of The Lost Cause, my novel of environmental hope (02 Oct 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow'
- kudos:I backed this before Kickstarter could even say “Hey, you’ve backed stuff from Doctorow in the past…” link to “Pluralistic: Kickstarting the audiobook of The Lost Cause, my novel of environmental hope (02 Oct 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow”
- kudos:
The narrator in my current audiobook just wondered (critically) if a character found an ethically dodgy situation “too useful to have a conscience about,” and I think it’s one of the best lines I’ve ever heard.
the missionary with the expired visa
- kudos:Over the past few years, I’ve been slowly digitizing a bunch of analog letters, keepsakes, and other things that I think are worth keeping a copy of in the Day One journaling app (and, more importantly, in a PDF export from Day One). My current project is copying over a bunch of old emails that I sent friends during the two years I served as a Latter-day Saint missionary, and in the email I was copying this morning, I wrote about a time when I was working as the legal secretary for the mission and had to do an audit of our legal documents because:
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Addison Graham: Latter-day Saints should not admire Hungary’s ‘family values’'
- kudos:Very happy to see this op-ed emerge—especially from a BYU student. Fidesz is not a party Latter-day Saints should praise or look up to. link to “Addison Graham: Latter-day Saints should not admire Hungary’s ‘family values’”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'New lawsuit challenges educational components of SB 150 | Lexington Herald Leader'
- kudos:Glad to see action being taken against this law. link to “New lawsuit challenges educational components of SB 150 | Lexington Herald Leader”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge'
- kudos:It baffles me when platforms think “oh, but we can help you see more relevant ads” is a selling point. Also, “not sharing data outside Reddit” doesn’t help either—it’s still an invasion of privacy. link to “Reddit will no longer allow users to opt out of ad personalization - The Verge”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'President of Hungary Discusses Faith and Family Values at BYU'
- kudos:Look, I don’t know much about Hungarian politics, but it seems to me that it would take a hell of a lot of self-confidence to brag about an ally of Viktor Orbán visiting BYU. This feels like wading into the culture wars in a way that the LDS Church usually tries to avoid. link to “President of Hungary Discusses Faith and Family Values at BYU”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on '629 | Open Topics | Wallace B. Smith | Re-Post – Project Zion Podcast'
- kudos:I love this interview so much and for so many reasons. I haven’t been a member of Community of Christ long enough to have personal connection with Wallace B. Smith, but I have a lot of respect for him. link to “629 | Open Topics | Wallace B. Smith | Re-Post – Project Zion Podcast”
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge'
- kudos:Amazon is too big, and while I’m not a policy expert, I welcome government efforts to keep it in check. link to “FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon - The Verge”
Esther is an ironic heroine for conservative Christians
- kudos:I’m pretty sure I remember exactly where I was when I realized that Esther 100% slept with the king before he chose her as his queen. I was sitting in a top-floor office in one of two villas on Chemin William Barbey in Chambésy, Switzerland. I lived on the bottom floor of the villa with some other office staff of the Switzerland Geneva Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and this office was where I did my religious studies every morning before heading out into a larger office where I helped with legal, vehicle, and other assorted logistical issues for the mission.
Pete, mint brownies, and two competing visions of Mormonism
- kudos:Pete and Sarah were mainstays of my Mormon experience growing up. Their oldest—a famously rowdy boy with several rowdy younger brothers—was present on the Sunday when I was introduced in children’s classes as a newcomer to the congregation. When I outgrew children’s classes and made my way to youth Sunday School, Pete was our teacher for a while—the kind of teacher who tried to suppress a giggle (and usually unsuccessfully) whenever the word “ass” (especially “dumb ass”) appeared in the KJV.
Leo Tolstoy and Nephi
- kudos:One of the more awkward passages in the Book of Mormon (at least from an ecumenical perspective—there’s much worse in there) is in I Nephi 3:220-222, where an angel has this to say with Nephi, the current narrator of the book: “Behold, there are save two churches only: the one is the church of the Lamb of God and the other is the church of the devil. Wherefore, whoso belongeth not to the church of the Lamb of God belongeth to that great church, which is the mother of abominations; and she is the whore of all the earth.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Opinion | I Was Attacked by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I Believe It Was a Strategy To Change What You See Online. - The New York Times'
- kudos:Roth’s perspective is valuable here. Scary stuff. [link to ‘Opinion | I Was Attacked by Donald Trump and Elon Musk. I Believe It Was a Strategy To Change What You See Online. - The New York Times’](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/opinion/trump-elon-musk-twitter.html?unlocked_article_code=4tdIbFuKLW42ISeaU4acN26WTieKQcsLEoCyhJt1DC8dcAq9yCnJjyrbKLCEWm2hVWmWh-x94MKiw-I_OrqJ8JIYpDsdvQ4BFioWZ_RXCQ4ftJfFamVymL4ZnoK5RUQIhDdY-ZuJck3JBMeNXn5VYxEZ-tp8__DgJ_29osLV2tNCx4SZkrQrNtAyYPdzMK4asGiGrshlttyZF4arTjYH7ObwQo2-GSiVT3z3QovPSQ8Q4L9ggP7frVv1zKmIi4yukMwCGcqmRYnUy8pmnGPw0wWV3c9FMTUKuc6VM7kGy9gMnz_OUsQCiX8LR3v5Ls40VVkp1tb_c7PD4BiQ6lFP2Aw
🍿 movieblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Barbie
- kudos:I love a movie that leans into being bizarre because it knows exactly what it is and commits to it. I love a movie that uses metaphor to make important points. I love a movie that is self-aware and even self-critical. This was as good as I expected it to be.
the Christian symbolism of the name 'Mormon'
- kudos:preface A quick preface: This is a post that I originally wrote nearly two years ago for By Common Consent. Lately, it’s been bugging me that I don’t have a version of it up on my own site, and since I haven’t had a lot of time this week to write anything original, I’m going to repost this here. This post elaborates on one of my favorite close readings of the Book of Mormon.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'The Batshit Crazy Story Of The Day Elon Musk Decided To Personally Rip Servers Out Of A Sacramento Data Center | Techdirt'
- kudos:What a wild story. link to ‘The Batshit Crazy Story Of The Day Elon Musk Decided To Personally Rip Servers Out Of A Sacramento Data Center | Techdirt’
📚 bookblog: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ for Dendo: One Year and One Half in Tokyo, by Brittany Long Olsen
- kudos:It’s weird to rate this so highly given how much anxiety it gives me to read it. Reading it four years ago is what forced me to confront how much baggage I had from my own Mormon missionary experience, but I know the author has her own complicated feelings about the book, and that helps some. At any rate, the book is so well done that I can’t help but rate it highly.
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Team Firefox foreverrrrrr link to ‘Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Musk shut off Starlink to prevent Ukraine attack on Russian ships, report says | Ars Technica'
- kudos:Don’t love the idea of a fickle billionnaire having this much influence in world affairs. link to ‘Musk shut off Starlink to prevent Ukraine attack on Russian ships, report says | Ars Technica’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/07/govern-yourself-accordingly/'
- kudos:Appreciate Doctorow’s thinking here. link to ‘https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/07/govern-yourself-accordingly/’
🔗 linkblog: my thoughts on 'Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools - The New York Times'
- kudos:A secular state is good, but French laïcité consistently goes too far. link to ‘Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools - The New York Times’