Kendall Koning
@kkoning.net
Terminally over-educated underachiever and deeply disappointed idealist. Tilting at windmills and watching the world burn. 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈🇺🇸🗽👩🏼❤️👩🏻👩🏼🎓👩🏼💻🐈
A great name for a publication about LLMs: Prompt Critical
October 3, 2025 at 1:16 AM
A great name for a publication about LLMs: Prompt Critical
Two great tastes that taste horrible together. 🤣
July 8, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Two great tastes that taste horrible together. 🤣
I know this was a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer it anyway…. Yes, it’s bribery.
UPDATE: This just got worse. Donald Trump apparently cut a secret side deal for MILLIONS in pro-Trump ads.
That would mean Paramount and its soon-to-be owner are shelling out $30 MILLION+ to support Trump—all while trying to get his approval on their merger.
Is this bribery?
That would mean Paramount and its soon-to-be owner are shelling out $30 MILLION+ to support Trump—all while trying to get his approval on their merger.
Is this bribery?
July 8, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I know this was a rhetorical question, but I’m going to answer it anyway…. Yes, it’s bribery.
Reposted by Kendall Koning
This speaks volumes:
Yale professors, Timothy Snyder, a historian of totalitarianism and the author of "On Tyranny," and Jason Stanley, a philosopher and the author of "How Fascism Works", move to Canada.
leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/03...
munkschool.utoronto.ca/person/timot...
Yale professors, Timothy Snyder, a historian of totalitarianism and the author of "On Tyranny," and Jason Stanley, a philosopher and the author of "How Fascism Works", move to Canada.
leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/03...
munkschool.utoronto.ca/person/timot...
Stanley from Yale to Toronto
Jason Stanley (philosophy of language, epistemology, political philosophy), Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, has accepted a senior offer from the University of Toronto, where he will be thr...
leiterreports.typepad.com
March 26, 2025 at 12:13 AM
This speaks volumes:
Yale professors, Timothy Snyder, a historian of totalitarianism and the author of "On Tyranny," and Jason Stanley, a philosopher and the author of "How Fascism Works", move to Canada.
leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/03...
munkschool.utoronto.ca/person/timot...
Yale professors, Timothy Snyder, a historian of totalitarianism and the author of "On Tyranny," and Jason Stanley, a philosopher and the author of "How Fascism Works", move to Canada.
leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2025/03...
munkschool.utoronto.ca/person/timot...
The only thing he's made more affordable so far are stocks.
March 10, 2025 at 9:54 PM
The only thing he's made more affordable so far are stocks.
New York should have joined as well. Their absence is notable.
Major breaking trans news: The States of Washington, Minnesota, and Oregon have sued the Trump administration to block it from enforcing a national gender affirming care ban for those under 19 years of age.
This is the second major lawsuit over Trump's trans ban EO.
Docs to come.
This is the second major lawsuit over Trump's trans ban EO.
Docs to come.
February 7, 2025 at 11:42 PM
New York should have joined as well. Their absence is notable.
Reposted by Kendall Koning
LGBTQIA minors make up 40% of the endangered minor runaway population. They are 120% more likely to be unhoused. They are also uniquely at risk for exploitation and trafficking.
This is breathtakingly evil.
This is breathtakingly evil.
New — The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) was told this week by DOJ that they'd lose their funding if the org didn't remove any mentions of LGBTQIA+ issues from their public materials, I've learned. Staff were told they need to deadname trans kids in their reports to comply.
February 7, 2025 at 4:00 AM
LGBTQIA minors make up 40% of the endangered minor runaway population. They are 120% more likely to be unhoused. They are also uniquely at risk for exploitation and trafficking.
This is breathtakingly evil.
This is breathtakingly evil.
Reposted by Kendall Koning
Think Tank Called ‘The Himmler Institute’ Assures Nation This All Legal
theonion.com/think-t...
theonion.com/think-t...
February 3, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Think Tank Called ‘The Himmler Institute’ Assures Nation This All Legal
theonion.com/think-t...
theonion.com/think-t...
Well, the ISPs (NCTA) used to be paying him (per the disclaimer in his own 2005 paper). They probably stopped, their lobbying dollars (i.e. bribes) spent more efficiently elsewhere.
February 2, 2025 at 6:56 PM
Well, the ISPs (NCTA) used to be paying him (per the disclaimer in his own 2005 paper). They probably stopped, their lobbying dollars (i.e. bribes) spent more efficiently elsewhere.
I'm thrilled to see all of Wicked's Oscar nominations! Not just for Best Picture and Cynthia Erivo's possible EGOT, but for Ariana Grande, production design, costume design... It's got to be a shoe-in for best score... those songs have been living in my head rent free since opening day.
January 23, 2025 at 3:49 PM
I'm thrilled to see all of Wicked's Oscar nominations! Not just for Best Picture and Cynthia Erivo's possible EGOT, but for Ariana Grande, production design, costume design... It's got to be a shoe-in for best score... those songs have been living in my head rent free since opening day.
Too little, too late, @nytimes.com. Those subscription dollars are now going to organizations more deserving (including @glaad.bsky.social and @propublica.org) and they're not coming back.
🧵 You may remember Pamela Paul for her “In defense of JK Rowling” essay, a piece supporting dangerous anti-transgender rhetoric, published one day after a coalition of 100+ orgs and leaders publicly called out @nytimes.com's pattern of inaccurate, biased coverage of trans people.
Pamela Paul Is Out at the Times Opinion Section
A surprise departure that appears to be part of a shake-up.
nymag.com
January 18, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Too little, too late, @nytimes.com. Those subscription dollars are now going to organizations more deserving (including @glaad.bsky.social and @propublica.org) and they're not coming back.
Reposted by Kendall Koning
Robert Reich has it right.
January 18, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Robert Reich has it right.
Exactly. For all of Biden's supposed qualifications and experience, for some of the most important aspects of the job it's like he didn't even understand the assignment.
I don't doubt his intentions, but it's also true that sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
I don't doubt his intentions, but it's also true that sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
… a serious criminal investigation had been commenced *immediately* after Garland assumed office—as I urged in this piece published on January 22, 2021. (4/4)
Opinion | Trump’s new reality: Ex-president, private citizen and, perhaps, criminal defendant
The stark lesson of the last four years is that the failure to hold a president to account only leads to more conduct for which the president should be held to account.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 16, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Exactly. For all of Biden's supposed qualifications and experience, for some of the most important aspects of the job it's like he didn't even understand the assignment.
I don't doubt his intentions, but it's also true that sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
I don't doubt his intentions, but it's also true that sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.
"How Civil Wars Start" by Barbara F. Walter. Book. +2 Foresight, -2 Morale. Binds on pickup.
Summary: Surprisingly likely in medium term, mechanisms and nature explained, many comparative examples given.
Summary: Surprisingly likely in medium term, mechanisms and nature explained, many comparative examples given.
How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them
Civil wars are the biggest danger to world peace today …
www.goodreads.com
January 16, 2025 at 4:27 PM
"How Civil Wars Start" by Barbara F. Walter. Book. +2 Foresight, -2 Morale. Binds on pickup.
Summary: Surprisingly likely in medium term, mechanisms and nature explained, many comparative examples given.
Summary: Surprisingly likely in medium term, mechanisms and nature explained, many comparative examples given.
Ooh, a counter-example for Betteridge's law of headlines! Those are rare!
“Orbán used law as a weapon against democracy. He consolidated power…giving orders directly to the bureaucracy, which he had reconstructed by changing civil service law…Orbán’s was accompanied by aggressive use of libel actions…He packed the courts with loyalists.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/o...
Opinion | Are We Sleepwalking Into Autocracy?
What we can learn from countries that have pushed back on threats to democracy.
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Ooh, a counter-example for Betteridge's law of headlines! Those are rare!
A SecDef who wants holy war against half the country… What could possibly go wrong? 🙄
11. Hegseth calls for a "holy war" and a "crusade" against Americans who think differently than he does because "God wills it." Trump is the pretext: Hegseth wants "to make crusade great again."
January 15, 2025 at 1:08 AM
A SecDef who wants holy war against half the country… What could possibly go wrong? 🙄
Whether or not Pixelfed is any good is irrelevant. A huge incumbent social media company blocking links its users post to a competing platform should be an actionable violation of antitrust laws.
Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized, open source Instagram competitor that has had skyrocketing signups in recent days: www.404media.co/meta-is-bloc...
Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed
Pixelfed said it is "seeing unprecedented levels of traffic."
www.404media.co
January 13, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Whether or not Pixelfed is any good is irrelevant. A huge incumbent social media company blocking links its users post to a competing platform should be an actionable violation of antitrust laws.
All this is true, but much is also beside the point. The opinion's reasoning is, frankly, ridiculous. No informed and reasonable person, blinded to the identities of the specific political and economic interests at stake, would see it as anything other than pretextual. (1/3)
🚨 Today, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced its decision in Ohio Telecom Association v. FCC, rejecting the FCC’s authority to classify broadband as a telecommunications service and enforce the #netneutrality rules enacted in its April 2024 Order. Read our statement from @punk.cool:
Sixth Circuit Ruling on FCC Authority Threatens Consumer Protections and Open Internet
Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.
publicknowledge.org
January 6, 2025 at 3:37 PM
All this is true, but much is also beside the point. The opinion's reasoning is, frankly, ridiculous. No informed and reasonable person, blinded to the identities of the specific political and economic interests at stake, would see it as anything other than pretextual. (1/3)
Reposted by Kendall Koning
The Mump Oligarchy – A Glossary
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
December 29, 2024 at 3:46 PM
The Mump Oligarchy – A Glossary
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
1/10. Mump regime. Musk plus Trump. Mu...mp. The real centibillionaire and the fake rich person in the proper order.
I just did the BlueSky self-verification by setting my handle to my domain name. It's not perfect verification, but it's (1) accessible, (2) expensive to spoof at scale, and (3) a lot better than nothing!
It's simple and quick; ask a friendly techie for help if you need it.
It's simple and quick; ask a friendly techie for help if you need it.
December 4, 2024 at 7:36 PM
I just did the BlueSky self-verification by setting my handle to my domain name. It's not perfect verification, but it's (1) accessible, (2) expensive to spoof at scale, and (3) a lot better than nothing!
It's simple and quick; ask a friendly techie for help if you need it.
It's simple and quick; ask a friendly techie for help if you need it.
With all this growth and attention, it looks like bots have started to infiltrate Bluesky.
A big jump in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" can't be too far behind. 🤞🏻 that Bluesky can eventually have a better defense against the dark arts than its predecessors.
A big jump in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" can't be too far behind. 🤞🏻 that Bluesky can eventually have a better defense against the dark arts than its predecessors.
November 25, 2024 at 8:41 PM
With all this growth and attention, it looks like bots have started to infiltrate Bluesky.
A big jump in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" can't be too far behind. 🤞🏻 that Bluesky can eventually have a better defense against the dark arts than its predecessors.
A big jump in "coordinated inauthentic behavior" can't be too far behind. 🤞🏻 that Bluesky can eventually have a better defense against the dark arts than its predecessors.
Bluesky's user base taking off is that classic combination of preparation (including early adopters) meeting opportunity. A great example that, while network effects remain difficult to overcome, change is still possible.
November 19, 2024 at 5:15 PM
Bluesky's user base taking off is that classic combination of preparation (including early adopters) meeting opportunity. A great example that, while network effects remain difficult to overcome, change is still possible.