CNBC:

Over a decade ago, Meta – then known as Facebook – hired social science researchers to analyze how the social network’s services were affecting users. It was a way for the company and its peers to show they were serious about understanding the benefits and potential risks of their innovations.

But as Meta’s court losses this week illustrate, the researchers’ work can become a liability. Brian Boland, a former Facebook executive who testified in both trials — one in New Mexico and the other in Los Angeles — says the damning findings from Meta’s internal research and documents seemed to contradict the way the company portrayed itself publicly. Juries in the two trials determined that Meta inadequately policed its site, putting kids in harm’s way.

… With AI now getting outsized attention for the harmful effects it’s having on some users, those companies must ask if it’s in their best interest to continue funding research or to suppress it.

Ignoring the possible social effects of your world-changing technology is literally sociopathic.

A simple breakfast kefir bowl:

• 3/4 c milk kefir
• 1/2 c rolled oats

Stir together and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, let sit for a few minutes to take the chill off; heating would negate the benefits of the kefir. Stir in your favorite toppings: seeds, nuts, fresh/dried fruit, sweetener.

Murphy Campbell, “Shady Grove” 🎵 More of these crazy talented young people playing folk music please. Looks like she’s just concluded a successful kickstarter for an album of her family’s North Carolina ballads.

To do this weekend:

• Make farmer’s cheese.
• Make scrapple. I’m picking up the neck bones tonight.
• Fix the truck door handle. Parts should be arriving today.
• Celebrate my 28th wedding anniversary with my sweetie.

Pull quote from an interview with Kingsnorth in the latest Mortise and Tenon.

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History:

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.

Saving this here for future me.

I’m trying to remember a few lines of some piece of Christian devotional writing that has a structure like “[some bad or difficult thing exists] therefore we are saved by [Christian virtue].” I feel like one line ends “therefore we are saved by hope.” It’s driving me crazy. Halp!

The future is invisible; we will find our way along the way.