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Vince Polley

@vpolley.bsky.social
167 followers 165 following 384 posts

Former Internet lawyer and techie. Michigan, frequently.

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Reposted by Vince Polley
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 16h
The first two pages of a fascinating book on the surprising role of criminal law and courts in 19th Century Philadelphia: Allen Steinberg, The Transformation of Criminal Justice: Philadelphia, 1800–1880.
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Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’m beyond livid about tax dollars funding Trump propaganda. I do not see “two sides“ to this situation. Join me in mocking news organizations whose coverage was pathetic by extrapolating how they’d cover Trump shooting someone on Fifth Avenue... presswatchers.org/2026/09/the-...
presswatchers.org
The political equivalent of Trump shooting someone on Fifth Avenue | Press Watch
Trump using tax dollars for a campaign commercial should trigger every thinking American, even White House political reporters
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
The hottest new hangout for middle schoolers is NPR’s comment section?
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Interesting
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Reposted by Vince Polley
Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
honestly laughing so hard. we're doomed. but we'll be able to laugh at his fails a lot as we swirl the bowl
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Correct.
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Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Meta's new AI agent wanted my passport info. Not to help me. To train on me. Actually, it wanted everything: bank accounts, email inboxes, ID info. No surprise coming from Meta. But always worth reminding readers that AI automations come with major privacy risks. www.wired.com/story/metas-...
wired.com
Meta's Muse Is Better at Surveilling Than Helping Me
The Muse app continues Meta’s trend of opting users into data collection for AI training. It also nudges you to share your bank account, email, and passport information.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation @eff.org · 21/09/2026
When you talk to an AI, you are talking to the company hosting the AI, EFF’s @falsemirror.masto.nyc.ap.brid.gy told @WIRED.com. “These chat windows—that we’re used to being connections between us and another person—are really just us directly putting information into Meta servers about ourselves.”
wired.com
Meta's Muse Is Better at Surveilling Than Helping Me
The Muse app continues Meta’s trend of opting users into data collection for AI training. It also nudges you to share your bank account, email, and passport information.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Pretty damn interesting : reason.com/volokh/2026/...
reason.com
Warning Notice to Man Who Sent Critical E-Mail TO ICE Acting Director Likely Violated First Amendment
An excerpt from the longish opinion today by Judge Rudolph Contreras (D.D.C.) in Streever v. Mullin: Americans have long voiced...
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Reposted by Vince Polley
Euronews @euronews.com · 15/09/2026
The history of Ceuta and Melilla and why they are Spanish territory ➡️ l.euronews.com/fr7E
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
schneier.com
25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough - Schneier on Security
This essay was written with Cindy Cohn, and originally appeared in Lawfare. One of the many legacies of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 is the government-wide shift from targeted surveillance—such a...
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Alex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
unmuuute
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James Grimmelmann @jtlg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Speaking broadly, pure mathematics has consistently been appreciative of its connection to the humanities. Elegance, intuition, creativity versus computation, philosophical underpinnings, the sociology of collaboration—this is how they talk to each other. The scorn is mostly coming from elsewhere.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Excellent and sobering “how’d-we-get-here”: www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...
lawfaremedia.org
The Changing Face of the Department of Homeland Security
From hunting al-Qaeda to hunting immigrants.
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Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...
mathandai.org
Declaration — Math and AI
Read the declaration and add your name.
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👋I’m working on follow backs😊 @beaches1.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
VOTE BLUE! We must VOTE in huge numbers like Hungary did! Political cartoon by RJ Matson
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Paul Rosenzweig @rosenzweigp.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Talk about creepy (and horribly symbolic): www.kenklippenstein.com/p/us-finds-a...
kenklippenstein.com
U.S. Finds A War It’s Willing to Declare
New government logo chooses violence
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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Even if you aren’t aware of any such agreements missing from the State Department’s site, you can still help out by RT’ing this piece…or share it in relevant Reddit subs, email listservs, etc. Tysm 🙏
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Jessica Ritchey @jmritchey.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
One of my favorite Old Hollywood behind the scenes stories is that allegedly Claude Rains based his Prince John performance in The Adventures of Robin Hood on Bette Davis, and that's one of those "once you see it, you never unsee it" things.
Claude Rains serving cunt as Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Turns out, lots of people have studied how higher education works under dictatorship. Curious how these points echo so many of our current travails.
Screenshot of article which reads: Hungary is not the first country to experience this coup d’université. The conclusion to an incisive collection of essays, appropriately titled Universities Under Dictatorship (Penn State University Press), notes that gaining control of higher education was “a vitally important goal for every dictatorship” they studied. The dictatorships profiled in the essays, from Germany to Spain to Poland to Russia, used multiple pathways to exert power over universities: coercing institutions to adjust research and teaching topics to align with the government’s preferred ideology; expelling faculty, staff and students; gaining additional control over who can access higher education; replacing university leadership with people who agree with the government (thus reducing institutional autonomy); and reducing access to international colleagues and institutions.
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andy jabbour @andyjabbour.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This is such dystopian hell. 'ICE Wants to Know Everyone Who Bought a Certain Green Beanie From REI in the Last 2 Years' From @regret.bsky.social in @wired.com www.wired.com/story/ice-wa...
wired.com
ICE Wants to Know Everyone Who Bought a Certain Green Beanie From REI in the Last 2 Years
Homeland Security Investigations agents hit the outdoor retailer with a controversial subpoena as part of a dragnet search for the identities of protesters who entered a Minnesota church in March.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
yro.slashdot.org/story/26/09/...
yro.slashdot.org
LG TVs Caught Spying Even When Offline or On Standby - Slashdot
A Gamers Nexus investigation found that LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even while they are offline or in standby mode. "The company's TV se...
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Jay Troyer @gr8flbluejay.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Criselda Vasquez, American, The New American Gothic, 2017, oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, private collection The artist's father, portrayed in the painting, was kidnapped by ICE on 31 March 2026
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
hardware.slashdot.org/story/26/09/...
hardware.slashdot.org
A Man Charged His EV at a Dealership - and Was Billed $418 - Slashdot
The EV blog Electrek reports: A Clinton Township, Michigan man was charged $418 for a single EV charging session at Elder Hyundai's Macomb Township store after finding the charger listed as publicly ...
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Volokh Conspiracy @volokhc.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
dlvr.it
[Orin S. Kerr] How Often Are Articles in Top Law Reviews Written In Part By AI?
A guest post from Julian Nyarko.
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Daniel Ahmad @zhugeex.com · 04/09/2026
It takes you 20 paragraphs to get to the part of the article where they admit that Mamdani isn't paying the influencers and the reason they are posting videos of the stuff Mamdani is doing is because people are interested in watching it.
The mayor’s office says that it does not pay the influencers. Still, their proximity and access to a figure as popular as Mr. Mamdani can help increase their own social media following and, by extension, potentially put them in a position to attract paid content sponsorships from commercial brands. Some influencers said that when they feature Mr. Mamdani, the videos get more likes and viewers watch longer.
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ContempraInn 🌹 @contemprainn.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
😃
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
schneier.com
Is Someone Hacking DoD Refrigerators? - Schneier on Security
It sure seems like it. The stores confirmed to be affected include Fort Irwin, Calif.; F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo.; Fort Huachuca, Ariz.; Naval Station Newport, R.I.; Columbus Air Force Base, Mis...
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
As she said, ‘Sure. Why not’:
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Jesus, Google Earth: Have some dignity. Two views just now:
Map with Lake Ontario simply listed as Lake America.Map with "Lake Ontario (Lake America)"
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Brian Honan @brianhonan.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Happy Skynet day to all those who celebrate
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
gad, these posts are so spot-on (and with lovely, lyrical prose): open.substack.com/pub/tull/p/l...
open.substack.com
Lake Ontario
The lake will outlast the decree
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Never forgiving Apple or Google for participating in this bullshit.
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andy jabbour @andyjabbour.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
TIL Mello Yello was named after a dildo. H/T @enbrown.bsky.social.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
makes my head spin; “layers of an onion“: www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
theguardian.com
Fake US thinktank set up and funded by Israel sought to game AI for propaganda
In effort to prime chatbots to make pro-Israel arguments the site published 124 reports, over 560,000 words in nine days, Guardian analysis shows
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The Five Asymmetries of AI Procurement abhaskjha.substack.com/p/the-five-a...
abhaskjha.substack.com
The Five Asymmetries of AI Procurement
Why governments cannot buy AI the way they buy roads, and what to write into the contract instead.
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andy jabbour @andyjabbour.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
She had strong words and actually took action to raise funds to support good causes and took time to engage. More then words, she was a woman of action and commitment.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Opinion | Why does the New York Times keep calling the left ‘divisive’? - The Guardian
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Ian Boudreau @ianboudreau.com · 23/08/2026
American brexit continues and of course it's even bigger and stupider
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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Further on Carney's speech: It was full of careful bits of rhetoric like ones noted here. More powerful when spoken, w with carefully matched emphasis, than they might look on the page. All the more powerful for being so simple and direct. Plain, short words. "Ask not..." "I have a dream.."
Speech text:

We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked.

In short, they asked too much and offered too little.

The new U.S. tariffs are designed to hurt and divide us. 
They are a miscalculation, because Canadians will always take care of each other.

We are vacationing in our national parks. Buying Canadian products. Choosing Canadian.
Small acts of solidarity. Repeated millions of times that make a statement: we are the masters of our destiny.

Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us.
And I promised: “That will never, ever happen.”

Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America. 
We are already giving ourselves more than they can take away.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Very interesting reading:
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Paul Rosenzweig @rosenzweigp.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Sent from WhatsApp wa.me/12023299650?s=e
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
www.schneier.com/blog/archive...
schneier.com
AI Is Learning to Write Genetic Code - Schneier on Security
This sort of research is both exciting and terrifying: The two models in question were told to generate complete genomes for a viable bacteriophage—a type of virus able to infect and replicate itself ...
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 21/08/2026
Yesterday, Aug. 20, was one of the worst days of ICE flights I've seen. -At least 82 ICE flights -At least 15 were removal flights, including Haiti -At least 5 removals were third-country removals (Cameroon, Costa Rica, Liberia, Paraguay, Rwanda) -Plus 1 emergency return for reasons unknown
An ADSBx map showing 35 planes flying all over the Americas and Africa, emanating out of Louisiana and TexasAn ADSBx map showing North and Central America, showing roundup flights to northern cities, about a dozen removal flights to central America and the Caribbean.A closeup of Alexandria, La, showing GlobalX's N966AD taking off and then quickly returning to the airport.
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The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 21/08/2026
Republican town halls in 2026: 39 Democratic town halls in 2026: 451 Which one is listening to you and which one is hiding from you? www.alternet.org/republican-midterm…
alternet.org
Why Republicans are hiding from their own voters
The numbers make it clear: Republicans have almost completely stopped holding town hall meetings in which they’re forced to confront their own constituents.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
quite brilliant letter from the Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
interesting : What Cities Owe Before They Borrow abhaskjha.substack.com/p/what-citie...
abhaskjha.substack.com
What Cities Owe Before They Borrow
Municipal debt is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
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Chronicle of Higher Education @chronicle.com · 20/08/2026
From the Archives: Before Katalin Karikó won a Nobel Prize for research that paved the way for Covid-19 vaccines, she faced grant rejections, a demotion at Penn, and the loss of lab space. Her story raises questions about the systems that determine whose work gets support. chroni.cl/45CLHsC
chroni.cl
Penn Demoted Her. Then She Won the Nobel Prize.
On Katalin Karikó’s triumphant vindication.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 17/08/2026
Conversations with an Executioner: a chilling classic reveals the mind of a Nazi mass murderer
theguardian.com
Conversations with an Executioner: a chilling classic reveals the mind of a Nazi mass murderer
Polish war hero Kazimierz Moczarski spent 255 days sharing a cell with an SS general. Nearly 50 years after it was published, an uncensored version of his account is appearing in English for the first time
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Vince Polley @vpolley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
techcrunch.com/2026/08/14/u...
techcrunch.com
US courts will start publishing how often the government uses spyware | TechCrunch
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts told TechCrunch that it will start disclosing how many times judges authorized the use of spyware to wiretap suspected criminals.
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