πŸ¦‹ Ben West - πŸ’πŸŒ»

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1.4K Following
1.2K Posts

A "seasoned" campaigner and community organizer. An anxious Canadian πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ adjusting to living with a new health challenges.

These days i can be found working remotely, exploring decentralized decision making, coordinating doing research and campaign strategy and spending time with my dogs.

I'm writing a book called Mandate:The Monkey Flower Experiment, it's about a group of people trapped together at an off grid university on the side of a mountain after a terrible storm. It could be described as a #SolarPunk Lord of the Flies (or something).

I am currently living in the territory of the Huron-Wendat Nation and of the Anishinaabek people. I was born in Coast Salish territories.

This is my primary account.

Interests: #ClimateSolutions, #FOSS, #governance, #strategy, #urbanism, #privacy, #cryptography,, #infoSec, #OSINT, #decentralization, #biomimicry, #StreetArt, #transRights, #IndigenousRights, #humanRights, #juggling and #memes.

#FreePalestine πŸ‰

He/They

#LoveIsLove πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ

All My Linkshttps://www.benwest.blog/links/
LinkedIn πŸ™ƒhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/benwestintoronto
Ads everywhere. Usage limits. Frustrating guardrails. Less model choice. Users of the Character.AI chatbot app are revolting after a series of changes they say have made the app worse. This is what the future of AI actually looks like https://www.404media.co/lobotomized-character-ai-is-showing-what-ai-enshittification-looks-like/
β€˜Lobotomized’: Character.AI Is Showing What AI Enshittification Looks Like

Ads everywhere. Usage limits. Frustrating guardrails. Less model choice. Users of the Character.AI chatbot app are revolting after a series of changes they say have made the app worse.

404 Media
Koch Political Operation Spent Nearly $550 Million During 2024 Cycle

The huge sum shows that while the Koch network may not hold significant power at high levels of the Republican Party, it remains a financial juggernaut.

The New York Times

Therapy platform Headway is forcing patients to scan their faces to keep getting care. Is using Persona, the Peter Thiel funded company, to do the face scanning

https://www.404media.co/headway-therapy-facial-scan-biometric-data-identity-verification/

Headway Therapy Patients Forced to Scan Their Faces to Keep Getting Care

A popular virtual therapy platform is telling providers and patients they'll have to do facial scanning soon, forcing some to choose between handing over their data and continuing care.

404 Media

After a town banned Flock, a councilmember crashed out and said he would be introducing measures to ban cell phones, the internet, cameras, and nearly all technology in the town of roughly 900 people.

https://www.404media.co/after-town-bans-flock-councilmember-crashes-out-proposes-internet-and-phone-ban/

After Town Bans Flock, Councilmember Crashes Out, Proposes Internet and Phone Ban

A Texas councilmember will propose β€œa total ban on all cellular and GPS-capable devices for all operations within city limits" and"a total termination of all internet services."

404 Media

An app that uses AI to analyze photos of your poop and give a "daily gut health score" is now trying to sell that dataset of annotated photos of peoples' poop. Highlights the underground sale of highly sensitive, app-collected user data for AI training

https://www.404media.co/ai-poop-analysis-app-offered-to-sell-me-access-to-its-users-poops/

Internet of Shit: AI Poop Analysis App Offered to Sell Me Database of Its Users' Poops

"I hoarded a large database of something valuable, just not what you expect… 150k stools images."

404 Media

It appears authorities extracting deleted Signal messages through stored notifications has been done at least a few times. I was sent this other example. "Phone notifications that captured incoming Signal messaging"

More details here: https://www.404media.co/behind-the-blog-smoking-the-whole-carton/

Polymarket has pulled the bet on a nuclear detonation happening in 2026. There were obv concerns that a platform being used by insider traders would not mix well with a bet encouraging the detonation of a nuke. Polymarket didn't respond to request for comment

https://www.404media.co/polymarket-pulls-bet-on-nuclear-detonation-in-2026/

Polymarket Pulls Bet on Nuclear Detonation in 2026

β€˜How ghoulish.’ The depravity economy moves into the nuclear war business.

404 Media

The financialization of everything is all that is left. Which is why we end up with the totally insane situation that people are betting on whether world leaders are going to get killed, or that a nuke will drop this year

Watch, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paHMe9kFf0w

A couple of commercial shipping vessels have been struck, likely by Iran, sailing near their coasts.

Iran appears to be very serious about their blockade on the Strait of Hormuz

#straitofhormuz #Iran #KhameneiAssassination

Saw a few videos this morning of Iranian drones targeting US military bases and blowing shit up. I was struck by how loud and slow these things are. It's as if the loudest leafblower on the planet had wings and a propeller.

This AP News story has some good detail on Iran's response to its neighbors, which indicates the majority of the many, many missiles and drones Iran sent at or near the UAE were intercepted, but that some less defended places were still hit due to the volume of the missile/drone volley.

"Officials in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates said Sunday that air defenses had dealt with 165 ballistic missiles, two cruise missiles and more than 540 Iranian drones over two days. While officials said they intercepted all air attacks Saturday, debris from the knocked-down weapons sparked blazes at some of Dubai’s most iconic locations."

"Some Iranian drones flew as far as a U.K. military base in Cyprus. The runway at the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri was struck by an Iranian drone Sunday, according to U.K. officials, and sirens blared there again Monday when two more drones heading toward the base were intercepted."

"State-of-the-art U.S. and Israeli air defense assets have proven efficient in intercepting most of Iran’s ballistic missiles launched at Israel. But the attacks using large numbers of cheap drones hit some softer targets lacking the same level of protection."

https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-gulf-war-drone-49c8ea76358e579447ff839485f394ac

Iranian drones buzz across the Persian Gulf after their pivotal use by Russia in Ukraine

The distinctive buzz of the Iranian-designed drones has become a familiar sound in Ukraine over the past four years. Now, it’s increasingly heard across the Persian Gulf as Tehran strikes back with the cheap but effective weapons following the attack by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. The Shahed drones have made a transformative impact on the modern battlefield, with Russia sending swarms of the deadly weapons into the skies above Ukraine on nightly missions. While ballistic and cruise missiles fly much faster and pack a bigger punch, they cost millions and are available only in limited quantities. A Shahed drone costs only tens of thousands of dollars β€” a tiny fraction of a ballistic missile.

AP News