The Venn diagram of people who insist Jesus was a white guy and people demanding a historically accurate Odyssey is just one circle labelled 'we have some very specific ideas about ancient Mediterranean ethnicity.'

#society #history #greek #odyssey #mythology #classics

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/elon-musk-grok-odyssey-movie-ai-homer-x-post-feature-nolan-1236653824/

Google has a private navy. It's maintained by the firm whose founder now runs the Pentagon.

This is not a thriller. This is Tuesday in America Inc.

Somewhere in Bass Strait right now, a US government cable ship is maintaining Google's Internet.

#technology #internet #geopolitics #google #underseacable #submarinecable #osint #opensource #bigtech
https://www.keystone-collective.org/googles-private-navy-the-deputy-secretary-of-defence-the-seabed-and-a-coincidence-so-tidy-it-practically-files-its-own-maritime-notice/

America Needs Europe More Than It Admits

The US is currently building its largest offshore wind farm, 176 turbines, 2.6 gigawatts, enough to power 660,000 homes off the coast of Virginia. The Trump administration tried to stop it twice. Courts blocked them both times.

What's less discussed is who's actually building it.

Right now, five European vessels are assembling off Virginia Beach. A Dutch cable layer is actively installing cables 27 miles offshore. Two Italian-operated Prysmian ships are staged at Norfolk loading equipment. A Belgian Jan De Nul vessel is working the Rhode Island corridor. A Dutch N-Sea support ship is alongside them at the dock.

Netherlands. Italy. Belgium. Luxembourg. Malta.
Not a single US-flagged cable installation vessel in sight, because none exists capable of doing this work.

We tracks these vessels in real time. We watched them arrive. We're watching them work. The data doesn't lie.

The European cable fleet is the living proof that US energy infrastructure depends on European industrial capability that no executive order can instantly replace.

The dependency conversation runs both ways. Europe needs American security guarantees. America needs European ships to keep its lights on.

#politics #geopolitics #energy #maritime #osint

A corporation scans your face, adds you to a criminal database, shares it with dozens of retailers, and when it's wrong, you get £25 voucher and silence from the ICO.

We gave algorithms the power to punish. We gave victims a QR code.

#society #technology #ai #statistics #justice #law #facerecognition

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/03/guilty-until-proven-innocent-shoppers-falsely-identified-by-facial-recognition-struggle-to-clear-their-name

A short sci-fi story about Silicon Valley's last true believers, set after the war, during the framework, between the bot deliveries.

#writing #scifi #story #siliconvalley #comedy #cyberpunk #agile

Agile till the last retrospective. Read it.
https://www.keystone-collective.org/the-pivot-a-thorough-ongoing-and-as-yet-inconclusive-account-of-the-last-days-of-disruptive-innovation-in-the-western-hemisphere/

CrowdStrike has better telemetry than the UN Security Council. Microsoft has more geopolitical influence than most foreign ministries.

Eisenhower saw something like this coming. He just didn't know it would come with a freemium tier.

'The Threat Intelligence Industrial Complex: Eisenhower Warned You. The PDF Is £499 Per Seat.'

#technology #society #infosec #cybersecurity #politics #geopolitics

New read at: https://www.keystone-collective.org/the-threat-intelligence-industrial-complex-eisenhower-warned-you-the-pdf-is-499-per-seat/

The Threat Intelligence Industrial Complex: Eisenhower Warned You. The PDF Is £499 Per Seat.
https://www.keystone-collective.org/the-threat-intelligence-industrial-complex-eisenhower-warned-you-the-pdf-is-499-per-seat/

Watching ministers talk about NHS data strategy is like watching someone confidently rewire a house with no understanding of electricity. The language sounds polished, the reassurances are endless, but the substance just isn’t there.

Choosing a company like Palantir isn’t a neutral technical decision. It’s a long-term structural commitment with real implications for control, access, and public trust. Yet it’s presented as a simple procurement exercise.

And when political careers move on, as they always do, there’s rarely any reckoning for decisions that reshape public infrastructure for decades. That asymmetry should concern everyone.

#technology #surveillance #nhs #politics #ice #ethics #society #data

Palantir: NHS pilot’s “success” is questioned as second figure at major trust is linked to the tech giant | The BMJ
https://www.bmj.com/content/393/bmj.s680

Hi everyone,

We've added a 'Buy Me a Coffee' feature to our blog. Because writing scripts and screaming into the digital void still doesn't pay in caffeine.

If you enjoy what we do (or just want to fund our descent into espresso-fuelled chaos), you know what to do. Thanks for the support. 🥰

The Keystone Collective
https://buymeacoffee.com/keystonecollective

You don't live under the rule of law online. You live under the rule of defaults.

They're faster than regulation and more effective than consent.

If you want to see a platform's real values, don't read it's policy. Check what's already switched on.

#technology #politics #psychology #society

New read at:
'Default Settings as Cultural Power: The Most Powerful Opinion You Never Chose'
https://www.keystone-collective.org/default-settings-as-cultural-power-the-most-powerful-opinion-you-never-chose/

Regex.

Invented to understand neurons, evolved into a computational knife that can parse text, melt CPUs, summon Unicode nightmares, and ruin weekends. Not regular, barely expression, and mostly trauma.

Still we use it. Still we love it.

#computerscience #regex #linguistics #math

https://www.keystone-collective.org/the-perverse-beauty-of-regex-a-love-letter-to-the-worlds-most-efficient-torture-device/

The Technology of Counter-Surveillance: How to Annoy an Algorithm (and Why You Should)

In the age of seamless tracking, friction is rebellion. Encrypt. Jam. Blur. Make the algorithm work for it's supper.

You can't opt out of the grid, but you can make the grid regret adding you.

#privacy #surveillance #technology #society

https://www.keystone-collective.org/the-technology-of-counter-surveillance-how-to-annoy-an-algorithm-and-why-you-should/

Ever feel like the world is a giant, tangled ball of yarn? One moment you're pondering the latest cyber threat, the next you're wondering how it ties into global politics, or why your hotel's Wi-Fi is so terrible. (Spoiler alert: sometimes, it's all connected!)

https://www.keystone-collective.org/welcome-to-the-rabbit-hole/