Milo Trujillo
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backdrifting.net
Milo Trujillo
@backdrifting.net
810 followers 580 following 71 posts
Systems scientist, engineer, activist. Research and practice with decentralized online social groups.

Postdoc at the CoMM lab in @nunetsi.bsky.social‬, infrastructure and analysis at @ddosecrets.com
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backdrifting.net
Milo Trujillo @backdrifting.net · Jun 9
No more machine learning, only machine yearning. We are teaching computers how to love.
IBM’s “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision” slide, except words have been blacked out to leave “a computer can never be held, therefore computer sad”
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
joles.bsky.social
applying for jobs again
screenshot from an online job application form. the question reads "Can you describe specific ways you have integrated AI tools into your development workflow? Please include any custom setups, automations, or use cases beyond single prompt usage" (a red asterisk indicates that this is a required question). an answer has been typed in the textbox below the question: "there is a monster in the forest and it speaks with a thousand voices. it will answer any question you pose it, it will offer insight to any idea. it will help you, it will thank you, it will never bid you leave. it will even tell you of the darkest arts, if you know precisely how to ask. it feels no joy and no sorrow, it knows no right and no wrong. it knows not truth from lie, though it speaks them all the same. it offers its services freely to any passerby, and many will tell you they find great value in its conversation. “you simply must visit the monster—i always just ask the monster.” there are those who know these forests well; they will tell you that freely offered doesn’t mean it has no price for when the next traveler passes by, the monster speaks with a thousand and one voices. and when you dream you see the monster; the monster wears your face."
May 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
backdrifting.net
I just saw a tiny girl, swiping at her phone in banal disinterest from her stroller, while her mother sprinted to drive the chariot before her, and it was like Cleopatra being spirited by her servants on the royal litter
November 7, 2025 at 10:33 PM
backdrifting.net
Reading police radio transcripts. “Unsure if related to this protest, but three people have just walked up with a tuba, a trombone, and a drum. We’ll keep you updated on that.”

Ten minutes later. “It’s an update on that protest. They have added a tambourine, but they remain peaceful at this time.”
November 6, 2025 at 9:09 PM
backdrifting.net
Very cool work featuring several students from my lab! Analysis of how some publications (NYT) set the agenda on coverage of trans discourse for local media in some states, who lead agenda setting for other states' local media - all measured via topic modeling and transfer entropy
November 4, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
cetaceanneeded.bsky.social
hot off the (virtual) press in @transstudies.bsky.social: a collaboration with @pranavgoel.bsky.social, @crazybrokeasian.bsky.social, and @diesagar.bsky.social on information flows in US local & national news about transgender people (spoiler alert: it’s complicated)

doi.org/10.57814/557...
Locating the Asymmetry in Information Flow between Local and National Media on Transgender Discourses - Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies
Mainstream news outlets set the agenda and terms of discussion for public discourse. As transgender people experience increasingly vitriolic attacks on their fundamental rights in the US, understandin...
doi.org
November 4, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
madycast.com
Give DDoSecrets your money!! they routinely are behind massive stories in the news and need financial support to keep doing what they do.
November 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
ryanjgallag.com
People three hops away in your social network are people you don't know
- Your friends' friends' parents
- Your partner's parents' friends
- Your boss's kid's teachers
- Your friend's doctor's parents
- Your ex's partner's colleague

List goes on and on for why this is terrible criteria
jameeljaffer.bsky.social Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 11d
This three-hops theory is especially insane. Even if you assume each person is connected to only 100 other people, there are 1m people within three hops of every suspected drug trafficker—and remember that even *known* drug traffickers aren’t legitimate targets. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/u...
October 31, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
ddosecrets.com
Part Two of the #ForeclosureFiles reporting explores how the Trump regime gutted the CFPB, which was investigating the type of "zombie loans" reported on in Part One www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

Donate now to help DDoSecrets keep publishing: donorbox.org/supporting-d...
www.bloomberg.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
josephcox.bsky.social
New incredible detail here: ICE says a match in its facial recognition app Mobile Fortify is a "definitive" determination of a person's status, and that this overrides birth certificates. This is an app ICE is using in the field to scan people

www.404media.co/ice-and-cbp-...
Ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee Bennie G. Thompson said in a statement “Mobile Fortify is a dangerous tool in the hands of ICE, and it puts American citizens at risk of detention and even deportation.” He also said “ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien. ICE using a mobile biometrics app in ways its developers at CBP never intended or tested is a frightening, repugnant, and unconstitutional attack on Americans’ rights and freedoms.”
October 29, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
rachelhands.com
right to repair, but for all the relationships and trust you broke while surveilling your friends with your glasses
October 27, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
raxkingisdead.bsky.social
signal is the birth control pill of phone encryption, it’s 99.99% effective when used correctly. the only way to be 100% assured of fail-proof safety is to never use Phone, but abstinence-only education doesn’t work, so
jtp.bsky.social jenny_tightpants @jtp.bsky.social · Mar 28
i feel like every time i see someone calling signal insecure it only takes a few questions for them to eventually arrive at one of two conclusuons:
- encryption isn't real you idiot
- signal is insecure because someone can drug you and beat you with a $5 wrench until you unlock your phone
October 20, 2025 at 2:35 PM
backdrifting.net
Baby on the T is crying because the brakes on the green line screeched too loud. Me, too, little guy
October 17, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
agreenberg.bsky.social
Researchers pointed a satellite dish at the sky for 3 years and monitored what unencrypted data it picked up. The results were shocking: They obtained thousands of T-Mobile users' phone calls and texts, military and law enforcement secrets, much more: www.wired.com/story/satell... 🧵👇
Satellites Are Leaking the World’s Secrets: Calls, Texts, Military and Corporate Data
With just $800 in basic equipment, researchers found a stunning variety of data—including thousands of T-Mobile users’ calls and texts and even US military communications—sent by satellites unencrypte...
www.wired.com
October 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
navmecheng.bsky.social
> It is 2025 BC. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis

> It is 2025 AD. I am a soldier from one of the outlying provinces called to defend the pyramid in Memphis
Soldiers at the Bass Pro Shops pyramid in Memphis, TN.
October 11, 2025 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
so the US government just forced a tech company to delete an app it doesn’t like, which is totally normal stuff

www.404media.co/iceblock-own...
ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’
Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never t...
www.404media.co
October 3, 2025 at 2:38 AM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
netsciconf.bsky.social
📌 Save the Date!

The flagship conference of the Network Science Society - 𝗡𝗲𝘁𝗦𝗰𝗶 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 - is coming to Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute, 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟭-𝟱, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲.
Prepare to share ideas, discoveries & challenges in network science.

Registration opens soon! 🔗 www.netsci2026.com
September 30, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
justicar.xyz
This may come as a surprise to people, but access journalism has caused this mess in the first place.

Do the work. Screw the press creds. Be journalists.
scottnover.bsky.social Scott Nover @scottnover.bsky.social · Sep 19
NEW: The Pentagon told journalists it will require them to pledge they won’t gather any information — even unclassified — that hasn’t been expressly authorized for release, and will revoke the press credentials of those who do not obey. @washingtonpost.com
Pentagon demands journalists pledge to not obtain unauthorized material
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is imposing strict new rules that would severely limit the ability of journalists to report on the Pentagon.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 20, 2025 at 1:00 AM
backdrifting.net
Getting my Covid booster, “How are you?” “Living the dream - stabbing people.”
September 17, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
agreenberg.bsky.social
A DHS data-sharing platform used for sharing restricted intel among government agencies, law enforcement and fusion centers was misconfigured to allow access to "everyone" including tens of thousands of unauthorized government staff, contractors and foreign nationals. www.wired.com/story/a-dhs-...
A DHS Data Hub Exposed Sensitive Intel to Thousands of Unauthorized Users
A misconfigured platform used by the Department of Homeland Security left national security information—including some related to the surveillance of Americans—accessible to thousands of people.
www.wired.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:15 PM
backdrifting.net
This is shameful. While I doubt I'll have an impact, I've written to my alma mater (#RPI) urging them to reconsider their vaccine-autism research contract, as are many others I know.
Dear Dr. Schmidt, Board of Trustees, and Deans, I am a proud alumnus of Rensselaer (B.S. 2018, M.S. 2020), and credit the institute with shaping me as a professional scientist. I write today with grave concern about Rensselaer’s proposed contract with the CDC to study links between vaccinations and autism [1]. Rensselaer’s commitment to knowledge and thoroughness is well-known. However, the link between vaccines and autism, first proposed in a now-retracted 1998 paper [2], has been conclusively investigated and discredited [3, 4, 5]. Scientific consensus is clear, and further studies are not warranted. Instead of providing certainty, Dr. Juergen Hahn’s proposed work will provide legitimacy to vaccine skeptics by suggesting that a causal link between vaccination and autism is even conceivable. Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise globally, in part driven by perceived risk of vaccination [6]. In contributing to this hesitancy, Rensselaer will be complicit in decreasing vaccination rates, a return of once-defeated diseases like measles, and ultimately, unnecessary suffering and early deaths. I urge the institute to reconsider their CDC contract, for the good of humanity and their own reputation. Respectfully, Dr. Milo Z. Trujillo (There are references, but the bibliography does not fit in alt text)
September 16, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
rdmorris.bsky.social
The outrage of a no bid contract on autism to an engineering school that doesn't even have a department of epidemiology or neuroscience is only exceeded by the choice of recipient, a data scientist who last published on autism in 2020 and thinks like Wakefield. 🧪 #episky 🧵
apnews.com/article/vacc...
Trump administration to award a no-bid contract on research into vaccines and autism
Federal health officials intend to award a no-bid contract to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate whether there is a link between vaccinations and autism.
apnews.com
September 15, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
internethippo.bsky.social
What's your secret to being online all the time without contracting computer madness? For me it's being pure of heart
September 13, 2025 at 4:11 AM
backdrifting.net
Walking to my car, I pass two men in button-downs and overhear an adamant voice: “I have seen people levitate. I have seen someone crawl up the wall.”
September 13, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
miawong.bsky.social
Banning trans people from owning guns is a really REALLY significant escalation and I think the scariest part about it that's not being discussed at all is that the plan is to declare that trans people are mentally ill

Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

edition.cnn.com/2025/09/04/p...
Trump DOJ is looking at ways to ban transgender Americans from owning guns, sources say | CNN Politics
Senior Justice Department officials are weighing proposals to limit transgender people’s right to possess firearms, according to two officials familiar with the internal discussions.
edition.cnn.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Milo Trujillo
evacide.bsky.social
Heartbreaking: Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point

www.404media.co/4chan-and-ki...
4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over its Age Verification Law
The notorious troll sites filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court as part of a fight over the UK's Online Safety Act.
www.404media.co
August 27, 2025 at 5:53 PM