Tootfinder

A look at emerging faith tech apps like Hallow that use AI chatbots for digital chaplaincy, amid concerns over data privacy and their quality of faith guidance (Lauren Jackson/New York Times)
https://www.nytime…

Finding God in the App Store
Millions of people are turning to chatbots to confess their darkest secrets and seek guidance from on high. “Is this actually God I am talking to?”

Getting right to the point...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/15/2348703/-Trump-s-minions-waste-millions-of-tax-dollars-on-ads-kissing-his-butt

Just finished "Once For Yes" by Allie Millington. A phenomenal book dealing with tragedy, gentrification, grief, and community, it's preposterously poetic, but unfortunately has a twisted neoliberal politics lurking behind the scenes that makes me hesitate to recommend it. I enjoyed it greatly, especially the tightly choreographed prose, and the plot was both very well-paced and touching. It's fun for adults but also written for kids, which makes it all the more frustrating that despite touching on gentrification, it valorizes someone who is objectively a pretty scummy landlord, and fails to interrogate land ownership or rent in the slightest. It wouldn't be nearly the same story without the way things wrap up, but that doesn't make me comfortable with the larger messages it's sending, even if I think its messaging about grief is good, including for children.
#AmReading

For those who care about that kind of stuff: The Mailing List Presale Code for the upcoming Deftones EU tour already works.

National Public Data, the site that leaked millions of social security numbers and was shut down in December, is back only this time it's a people finder that is presumably based on its massive trove of everyone's sensitive data.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/site-b…

A gun rights lobbying group is suing the U.S. Postal Service
in a bid to overturn its nearly 100-year-old ban on mailing handguns,
arguing that the law wasn’t contemplated when the country’s founders drafted the 2nd Amendment in the U.S. Constitution https://reut.rs/3IvxVzF

Source: cloud startup Vercel has been approached by investors offering to invest hundreds of millions at an $8B-$9B valuation; it was valued at $3B last year (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/cloud-startup-vercel-fields-o…

Cloud Startup Vercel Fields Offers for $9 Billion Valuation
Vercel, a nine-year-old cloud startup that companies use to host and develop websites and artificial intelligence apps, has been approached by investors offering to invest hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation between $8 billion to $9 billion, according to a person with direct knowledge ...

Trump has been meddling with Intel,
which now apparently includes mulling
⭐️"the possibility of the US government taking a financial stake in the troubled chip maker,"
the Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan weighed the option during a meeting on Monday at the White House

These talks have only just begun
—with Intel branding them a rumor
—and sources told the WSJ that Trump has yet to iron out how the potential …

US may purchase stake in Intel after Trump attacked CEO
Trump’s attacks on Intel CEO may stem from beef with Biden.

In the so-called world's greatest nation, people without homes are living in tents under bridges. Some would respond by killing all of them. Sadly, people like that are on television and paid millions of dollars per year. This country is sick.

TTP analysis: Google used an internal reorganization to reduce the amount it reported on US lobbying spending, likely by millions; Google disputes the claims (Ted Mann/Bloomberg)