onfocus

It’s a legacy that deserves a more considered resting place, as many on the internet have pointed out an unfortunate reality: The kerning on Pope Francis’s tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major is objectively awful.

It's just painful to see an organization with that much wealth not hire people good at their craft.

Earlier this week, I was informed that unless we secure $250,000 in committed funds, the OSL will be forced to shut down later this year.

Every corporation that relies on open source software somewhere in their stack should pitch in a bit.

… I don't think the audience for these memos is really the people who work at these companies. I think the audience is the other CEOs and investors and VCs in the industry, just as it was for the other fads of the last few years.

We need someone to hop on that group chat and say it's very cool to provide meaningful work, help employees thrive, and work toward a more equitable society. Just normal CEO group text shit they can flex about.

Sure, the buck stops here. Trump is all powerful. But he — the President — is not making the decisions, did not make the AEA invocation based on lies. “The lawyers” did that. And they don’t want him to pick up that phone and facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

Complying with the Supreme Court is out of his hands, really. Someone else makes those decisions. They probably can't be held accountable either so no use finding out. Just... the lawyers.

The 52-46 vote delivers a key victory to major companies and trade groups in the fossil fuel and petrochemical sectors that had lobbied against the regulation. It also marks the first time in the Clean Air Act’s 55-year history that Congress has scaled back protections under the landmark environmental law.

Not content to let Trump make all of the decisions that harm Americans, the Senate votes in favor of cancer, brain damage, and other serious health effects to show they too are evil.

The nation’s forecasting agency is in tatters as what could be a destructive hurricane season nears. Several current and former agency meteorologists told CNN they are concerned forecasts and life-saving warnings are not going to be issued in time.

Not great.

Only a hundred days in, and there’s so much going on at once that it’s basically impossible to keep up.

It's a parade of horribles but I enjoyed this episode basically summarizing recent Verge articles about the administration. Nilay Patel and Verge editor Adi Robertson have a great conversation about where we're at. I appreciate the optimism about people rediscovering the benefits of government, but man oh man, feels like a pipe dream at the moment.

Garza reveals the behind-the-scenes drama, discusses the ethical challenges of billionaire-owned media, and shares powerful insights on standing up for integrity in journalism. From hopeful beginnings at the LA Times to her shocking departure and reflections on billionaire influence in the media, this conversation explores the high stakes of maintaining editorial independence in an increasingly polarized world.

I enjoyed this interview with Mariel Garza about her decision to leave the LA Times editorial board. Really interesting that their "good billionaire" suddenly went fascist out of nowhere. It really does feel like some sort of psychological contagion among the ruling elite.

In many cases it’s still unclear what exactly DOGE engineers have done or intend to do with that data. Despite Elon Musk’s protestations to the contrary, DOGE is as opaque as Vantablack. But recent reporting from WIRED and elsewhere begins to fill in the picture: For DOGE, data is a tool. It’s also a weapon.

Sounds like blackmail everyone all the time is the strategy.

If a ludicrous idea started building momentum, the ringleader and their affiliates would get pushed out of an organization, then another one, and another one, before being deemed so poisonous that society in general would exile them to some tract of rural land to farm beets and / or start a cult. If they were still interested in spreading their ideas, their options were limited to the physical media they could afford to purchase — a monthly pamphlet sent through the mail, a ham radio, or a sign on the side of the road. Barricaded from the tightly controlled mass communication networks of print distribution and broadcast signals that informed the nation and the leaders they chose, they were forever stuck on the fringes.

That was where “crazy” used to die.

We also got wikipedia so maybe we can start shunning weirdos again and keep the good parts of the Internet.

The FDA this month also suspended existing and developing programs that ensured accurate testing for bird flu in milk and cheese and pathogens like the parasite Cyclospora in other food products.

Seems like a bad time to cut back on testing. But maybe they're trying to thin out the population? Maybe we just all do our own food safety testing individually?

Sarahi says what followed her arrest "felt like a kidnapping." She told NPR that her family was placed in a windowless office space near the bridge. For close to six days, she said they were given no access to a lawyer, told to sleep on cots without proper accommodations for the children (no diapers or appropriate food). She says a few days in, her children began to get sick, and there was no first aid available.

Who are these Americans keeping families with sick kids in a windowless room for a week because they took a wrong turn?