JWB
@jwbsalevi.bsky.social
Editor, Tech/ScienceCommunicator, Old-school-journalist, AI Realist. Cantabrigian in Toronto.
Informing policy with useful, reliable evidence and narrative theory.
Allergic to bullshit, clickbait, deadcatting, tribalism and shellfish.
Informing policy with useful, reliable evidence and narrative theory.
Allergic to bullshit, clickbait, deadcatting, tribalism and shellfish.
Pinned
JWB
@jwbsalevi.bsky.social
· Nov 20
Good and Bad ideas abound, left, right and centre. We need to have the wisdom to conserve things that work for most people, the courage to try new things in the name of real progress, and the honesty to be open about both our failures and successes. Politics isn't sport. News isn't entertainment.
Dumbscaling 101.
Here’s How the AI Crash Happens
The U.S. is becoming an Nvidia-state.
www.theatlantic.com
November 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Dumbscaling 101.
Nobody needs billions, or billionaires.
Why the anger with Billie Eilish? Because it’s against the rules to say what we all know about billionaires | Zoe Williams
The singer is giving away millions – but the parameters for criticising the super-rich are very narrow, and hardly anyone qualifies, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams
www.theguardian.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Nobody needs billions, or billionaires.
Project Kontinuum, a “United Nations” approach to the problem of media.
How to save the news
The internet has become a tool of misinformation and mass surveillance. A global initiative seeks to change that
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Project Kontinuum, a “United Nations” approach to the problem of media.
The Idaho Stop Rule for bikes: Treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. Makes sense to me. #cycling
Cyclists may be right to run stop signs and red lights. Here’s why
Should cyclists be allowed to treat stop signs as yield signs? This rule from Idaho is divisive, but the scientific data is surprising.
theconversation.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:13 PM
The Idaho Stop Rule for bikes: Treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. Makes sense to me. #cycling
"Europe’s liberals are mandating assimilation programs for immigrants in the name of secularism; bolstering the military in service of European cooperation; restricting migration in order to protect tolerance; defying European legal precedents in the name of preserving the larger European project."
What the Dutch Election Says About the Future of Europe
Fortress Liberalism is on the rise.
www.persuasion.community
November 3, 2025 at 7:42 PM
"Europe’s liberals are mandating assimilation programs for immigrants in the name of secularism; bolstering the military in service of European cooperation; restricting migration in order to protect tolerance; defying European legal precedents in the name of preserving the larger European project."
AI paranoia is often just more hype that overestimates the power of the tech. But huge insidious risks WILL come with blind adoption. See: "Gradual Disempowerment: Systemic Existential Risks from Incremental AI Development."
arxiv.org
November 3, 2025 at 3:19 PM
AI paranoia is often just more hype that overestimates the power of the tech. But huge insidious risks WILL come with blind adoption. See: "Gradual Disempowerment: Systemic Existential Risks from Incremental AI Development."
Let's be truly Canadian about this. If you try to see everything, even sports, as a non-zero-sum game, you realize that everyone who watched the post-season got to see some superb athletes do some amazing things. And the players all got very well paid to play a ball game. A win all around.
November 2, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Let's be truly Canadian about this. If you try to see everything, even sports, as a non-zero-sum game, you realize that everyone who watched the post-season got to see some superb athletes do some amazing things. And the players all got very well paid to play a ball game. A win all around.
"The invisible Hand of Big Tech" - Brazilian groups are leading the way in criticism of Big Tech Platforms. As good a use of google translate as I can think of.
Projeto: A Mão Invisível das Big Techs
Investigação transfronteiriça inédita mostra como Big Techs usam lobby para influenciar leis e frear regulação em todo o mundo
apublica.org
October 30, 2025 at 3:07 PM
"The invisible Hand of Big Tech" - Brazilian groups are leading the way in criticism of Big Tech Platforms. As good a use of google translate as I can think of.
Bigger = Worse is increasingly becoming a good rule of thumb.
How Silicon Valley Uses Big Tobacco, Pharma, and Oil Tactics to Block Regulation | TechPolicy.Press
Emma Jones and Isabel Sunderland from Issue One say Big Tech firms have adopted the standard tactics of tobacco, oil, and pharmaceutical giants.
www.techpolicy.press
October 27, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Bigger = Worse is increasingly becoming a good rule of thumb.
Populism is more about thinking style than content.
Populism fast and slow
It is natural that a person who is both concerned by the rise of right-wing populism and possessed of a bookish disposition might turn to the academic political science literature in search of a bette...
josephheath.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Populism is more about thinking style than content.
Pissed that the terrific writing and political drama of the first 5 episodes of season 3 of The Diplomat takes a cheesy turn towards soap opera in episode 6 and beyond. Why does this always happen in mainstream American TV?
‘The Diplomat’ Review: Season 3 Struggles to Define the Relationship in a Snappy Yet Stifled Return
As their professional prospects improve, Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell's power couple is forced to confront the deleterious state of their union.
www.indiewire.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Pissed that the terrific writing and political drama of the first 5 episodes of season 3 of The Diplomat takes a cheesy turn towards soap opera in episode 6 and beyond. Why does this always happen in mainstream American TV?
Sounds like a stupid conspiracy theory, but I wouldn't put it past big media to have concocted all this to reassure an increasingly distrustful readership. Or past the administration to throw them a bone for being good boys and girls. It smells of "I'm shocked, shocked!..."
October 14, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Sounds like a stupid conspiracy theory, but I wouldn't put it past big media to have concocted all this to reassure an increasingly distrustful readership. Or past the administration to throw them a bone for being good boys and girls. It smells of "I'm shocked, shocked!..."
Don't want to be spoilsport, but come on, isn't this a little bit too on the nose?
TFW you paid $1400 to see Beckett’s most famous work without knowing anything about it
October 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Don't want to be spoilsport, but come on, isn't this a little bit too on the nose?
WTF?
In a region that has known little other than decades of conflict, this is an extraordinary moment: a slender but real chance of a fresh start econ.st/4oddjvz
October 9, 2025 at 10:43 AM
WTF?
Reposted by JWB
💬 Open communication is key to reaching people in highly polarised situations, reveals a new study from researchers @unistuttgart.bsky.social, published in @bjpols.bsky.social.
Read more 🔗 https://cup.org/4mYfFxn
Read more 🔗 https://cup.org/4mYfFxn
October 8, 2025 at 7:39 PM
💬 Open communication is key to reaching people in highly polarised situations, reveals a new study from researchers @unistuttgart.bsky.social, published in @bjpols.bsky.social.
Read more 🔗 https://cup.org/4mYfFxn
Read more 🔗 https://cup.org/4mYfFxn
"a story of a Democratic establishment cynically weaponizing identity politics to stop a Sanders-led populist takeover of the party, a tactic Democratic elites have utilized frequently to protect themselves." Sounds pretty close to the mark.
What Is Ezra Klein Thinking?
The New York Times columnist is asking the right questions, but pushing the wrong answers.
newrepublic.com
October 8, 2025 at 5:34 PM
"a story of a Democratic establishment cynically weaponizing identity politics to stop a Sanders-led populist takeover of the party, a tactic Democratic elites have utilized frequently to protect themselves." Sounds pretty close to the mark.
Foroohar rightly argues that "most Americans really have no idea what socialism is, given that much of what passes for it in the US would be considered middle of the road in much of Europe."
My latest column on the rise of the populist left: www.ft.com/content/a0ad...
The rise of America’s hard left
Economic populists offer an alternative to the authoritarian right, but they have to balance the righteous with the practical
www.ft.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Foroohar rightly argues that "most Americans really have no idea what socialism is, given that much of what passes for it in the US would be considered middle of the road in much of Europe."
At 80, Douglas Hofstadter is still helping us see the world's patterns in fresh - and fundamentally human - ways.
Take that, #AI.
Take that, #AI.
My Life in Ambigrammia
The esoteric art form that revealed a new kind of beauty to me
www.theatlantic.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:48 PM
At 80, Douglas Hofstadter is still helping us see the world's patterns in fresh - and fundamentally human - ways.
Take that, #AI.
Take that, #AI.
Reposted by JWB
I loved talking to Signal's @meredithmeredith.bsky.social, who is such a consistent, clear voice of sanity (and always a great interview).
We talked about (of course) SignalGate, what AI means for Signal, why tech bros continue to be such a disappointment, and much more. Read, listen, etc!
We talked about (of course) SignalGate, what AI means for Signal, why tech bros continue to be such a disappointment, and much more. Read, listen, etc!
How Signal’s Meredith Whittaker Remembers SignalGate: ‘No Fucking Way’
The Signal Foundation president recalls where she was when she heard Trump cabinet officials had added a journalist to a highly sensitive group chat.
www.wired.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:35 PM
I loved talking to Signal's @meredithmeredith.bsky.social, who is such a consistent, clear voice of sanity (and always a great interview).
We talked about (of course) SignalGate, what AI means for Signal, why tech bros continue to be such a disappointment, and much more. Read, listen, etc!
We talked about (of course) SignalGate, what AI means for Signal, why tech bros continue to be such a disappointment, and much more. Read, listen, etc!
Things have gotten much easier for big tech: now they just need to hack Trump's vanity (a big but very simple system) to get permission to hack everything and everyone.
Big Tech bosses court favour with Trumps at White House dinner
Heads of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Apple back AI initiative spearheaded by first lady Melania Trump
www.ft.com
September 5, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Things have gotten much easier for big tech: now they just need to hack Trump's vanity (a big but very simple system) to get permission to hack everything and everyone.
What will happen when the bullshit industrial complex bursts is anybody's guess. But it won't be pretty. Best case scenario: the "AI" hypesters shut up and startups focus on sustainable, real-world uses for high powered statistical pattern recognition. Worst case: nostalgia for the 1930s.
AI Skepticism Grows as Market Loses $1 Trillion Amid Bubble Fears
AI Skepticism Grows as Market Loses $1 Trillion Amid Bubble Fears
www.ainvest.com
August 24, 2025 at 9:53 PM
What will happen when the bullshit industrial complex bursts is anybody's guess. But it won't be pretty. Best case scenario: the "AI" hypesters shut up and startups focus on sustainable, real-world uses for high powered statistical pattern recognition. Worst case: nostalgia for the 1930s.
Nature has been in bed with big AI since at least 2017. It has huge leakage between its marketing and editorial offices and much of the AI "research" it pushes is riddled with hype and bullshit reframing of statistical data processing as "intelligence".
Without artificial-intelligence technologies, balancing human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions with carbon removals by 2050 is out of reach
go.nature.com/41LtWWk
go.nature.com/41LtWWk
Net zero needs AI — five actions to realize its promise
Without artificial-intelligence technologies, balancing human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions with carbon removals by 2050 is out of reach. Action in five areas is needed to keep this goal alive.
go.nature.com
August 22, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Nature has been in bed with big AI since at least 2017. It has huge leakage between its marketing and editorial offices and much of the AI "research" it pushes is riddled with hype and bullshit reframing of statistical data processing as "intelligence".
This is great, simple messaging with wide appeal.
We are allies, not rivals.
We are allies, not rivals.
We all want the same thing regardless of how we get around.
Creative done with @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social
Creative done with @thebikinglawyer.bsky.social
August 22, 2025 at 3:02 PM
This is great, simple messaging with wide appeal.
We are allies, not rivals.
We are allies, not rivals.
Albanese won't be bullied...
Watch in full: Francesca Albanese presents UN report on occupation and genocide in Palestine
YouTube video by Middle East Eye
youtu.be
August 20, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Albanese won't be bullied...
The Globe has a "time use" reporter... ohhh the irony.
Zosia Bielski
Zosia Bielski is The Globe and Mail's time use reporter.
www.theglobeandmail.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The Globe has a "time use" reporter... ohhh the irony.