Murmel's Digest
March 12, 2026 · View on web
These are the most widely shared links from across Mastodon and the Fediverse today — surfaced by Murmel from thousands of posts in the open social web. This is the Fediverse-wide view. Sign up to get a digest tailored to the people you actually follow.
An open letter to Grammarly and other plagiarists, thieves and slop merchants
moryan.com · 27 people
To everyone at Grammarly, I am writing a book right now, a really challenging endeavor that no doubt someone in Silicon Valley will think it’s fine to steal the day it’s published. I’ve been a professional writer for decades, even though the number of ways to make
“You should be ashamed of where you work. Not just Grammarly or Superhuman or whatever comically dumb name you come up with next. Almost everyone running tech firms, most people in positions of responsibility, pretty much every C-suite type — congrats, you’re all making the world a worse place. People used to be excited about tech, now they dread what data you're going to steal next, they dread what violation of privacy or the environment will turn up next.”
— @thomasfuchs · Mar 11
From Flock to ICE, Here’s a Breakdown of How You’re Being Watched
404media.co · 24 people
To better understand what exactly we’re looking at in this dystopian surveillance hellscape, 404 Media’s Jason Koebler and Joseph Cox joined Reddit's r/technology for an Ask Me Anything session.
We recently answered a ton of questions about ICE, Palantir, Flock, the surveillance industry, and more. This is our breakdown of the state of surveillance in 2026:
— @josephcox · Mar 11
In the Twenty-first Century, Space is the New Railroad for Billionaire Ambitions
techpolicy.press · 20 people
Billionaires are playing a game of orbital Monopoly, writes Janet Vertesi.
Billionaires aren't getting into the Space Race because they grew up on Star Trek. This is a game of Monopoly, and they are playing to own the pipes.
A new form of consolidation through lateral integration, across apparently separate industrial sectors that maintain control over essential communications infrastructures.
Own the pipes, and you control the world.
— @cyberlyra · Mar 10
The summers of today are vastly different to those of our grandparents
abc.net.au · 9 people Worth reading
It's true, Australia has always been hot. But digging into temperature data shows the summers we experience today are vastly different from those of our grandparents.
"Fifty years ago, Canberra's summers only reached the typical summertime temperature threshold for 54 days. Today, it goes for 99 days."
— @luciedigitalni · Mar 12
Tony Hoare (1934-2026)
blog.computationalcomplexity.org · 23 people
Turing Award winner and former Oxford professor Tony Hoare passed away last Thursday at the age of 92. Hoare is famous for quicksort, ALGO...
RIP Tony Hoare. His obituaries are talking about quicksort, but I think his most notable accomplishments are Communicating Sequential Processes, the Occam programming language, and the Transputer, an early example of a parallel processor
— @bascule · Mar 12
Temporal: The 9-Year Journey to Fix Time in JavaScript
bloomberg.github.io · 18 people
JavaScript's Date object has been a source of bugs for three decades. Temporal, which just reached Stage 4, is a modern replacement with immutable types, first-class time zone and calendar support, and nanosecond precision. This is the story of how Bloomberg, Igalia, and the TC39 community spent ...
“Earlier today, Temporal reached Stage 4 in the TC39 staging process, which means it will be part of the next annual ECMAScript specification (ES2026). However, you don't need to wait until then – you can use it today!”
— @rauschma · Mar 12
How Columbia Ignored Women, Undermined Prosecutors and Protected a Predator for More Than 20 Years
propublica.org · 8 people
For decades, patients warned Columbia about the behavior of obstetrician Robert Hadden. One even called 911 and had him arrested. Columbia let him keep working.
Columbia's report was prompted by a 2023 ProPublica investigation that revealed how the university protected a predator who abused more than 1,000 patients during his nearly 25-year career.
#Columbia #University #Doctor #Health #Medicine #Women #SexualAbuse #Education #HigherEd
— @ProPublica · Mar 11
A Clique of Unhinged Techno-Optimists Is Putting Humanity at Risk
juancole.com · 9 people Worth reading
Karp loves verbal combat as much as he likes running a firm that makes high-tech weaponry
Welcome to the world of Alex Karp, one of the leaders of the new wave of techno-militarists in Silicon Valley:
"If they are not scared, they don’t wake up scared, they don’t go to bed scared, they don’t fear that the wrath of America will come down on them, they will attack us. They will attack us everywhere.”
~Alex Karp, CEO Palantir
The solution? Buy more Palantir
— @DrALJONES · Mar 11
At the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, the empty chairs are the story
lowyinstitute.org · 6 people Worth reading
The UN’s flagship gender equality event is excluding the very people it exists to serve.
Time to move to Europe? At the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York, the empty chairs are the story as the US visa policies are excluding the very people it exists to serve
ht @johnquiggin
— @kcarruthers · Mar 12
My journey from foreign correspondent to Uber driver in Trump's America
stevescherer.substack.com · 6 people Worth reading
I once documented human displacement and desperation; now I am living it
Steve Scherer was a Reuters’ bureau chief in Canada. Then he got laid off, had to leave the country, and now drives for Uber in Virginia, in a country he doesn’t recognize anymore after working for 28 years abroad.
— @kottke · Mar 11
Your personalized digest
See what your network is sharing
This page shows the top links across the whole Fediverse. Sign up and Murmel will surface only the stories that the people you follow are actually talking about.
Start your free 30-day trialNo credit card required. Connect Mastodon.