News

Big Easy’s Big Brother

We get into a secret partnership between the New Orleans Police Department and Project NOLA, a private nonprofit organisation that owns and operates an extensive network of cameras blanketing New Orleans. For years, Project NOLA has been running live facial recognition through their cameras and sending automated notifications to the police when a match is made using Project NOLA’s privately maintained list of “wanted people.” By going through an unofficial private partner, police have been able to sidestep and undermine legal prohibition on their use of AI technologies like facial recognition. We get into the history of using New Orleans as a testbed for policing technology, the dangerous precedent being set by this public-private relationship, and how this surveillance nightmare is on track to become even more expansive and unleashed thanks to potential policy changes.

••• Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025…-new-orleans/
••• A bad facial recognition match costs Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto’s office. See how much www.nola.com/news/jefferson_par…-728b3783cb93.html
••• New Orleans City Council proposed ordinance cityofno.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php…meta_id=741682

Standing Plugs:
••• Order Jathan’s new book: www.ucpress.edu/book/978052039807…c-and-the-luddite
••• Subscribe to Ed’s substack: substack.com/@thetechbubble
••• Subscribe to TMK on patreon for premium episodes: www.patreon.com/thismachinekills

Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (bsky.app/profile/jathansadowski.com) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.x.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (bsky.app/profile/jebr.bsky.social)

 

Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief on the Water, Dies at 45

He was the pied piper of a loose community of DIY artists homesteading on New York City’s waterways, which he used as his canvas and stage.

Orien McNeill, Artist Who Made Mischief on the Water, Dies at 45
Orien McNeill in New York Harbor in 2020. An early pioneer of New York’s fetid waterways, he was among the first artists to homestead on the Gowanus Canal, which he did two decades ago in a 1953 Chris-Craft.Credit…Duke Riley

 

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AI Scams Are the Point

Propaganda and deceit are a feature of AI, not its downfall.AI Scams Are the Point

Why does it matter how we talk about artificial intelligence? Some, mainly tech firms and their useful idiots, maintain we are about to immanentize the eschaton (which translates roughly as: dissolve all of society’s problems). Others insist we are summoning a false god in the form of an artificial general intelligence that will destroy civilization. Those feelings of awe and terror aren’t particularly assuaged by the numbers: Tens of billions of dollars are raised each year by startups in this sector—incumbents hope to raise trillions more.

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Professors Are Using A.I., Too. Now What?

Colleges and universities have been trying to fight against students using tools like ChatGPT to do class assignments and communicate. But here’s a twist: Professors and educators are now turning to A.I. to prepare lessons, teach, and even grade students’ work. We talk with NYT tech reporter Kashmir Hill about these conflicts on campus. Also, she shares what she learned after giving over her life for a week to A.I. tools, which wrote emails for her, planned her meals, chose what she should wear, and even created video messages for TikTok using her likeness and a clone of her voice.

EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS

EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS

The maniac who blew himself up outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic is our latest High Desert dingbat to make the national news. Luckily, those injured in the Palm Springs terror attack have been treated and released from the hospital. But who bombs fertility clinics? Meet America’s worst new subculture, the violent anti-natalists, and their new hero from Twentynine Palms.

This is EPISODE #243: THE MAD BOMBER OF TWENTYNINE PALMS with geographically appropriate soundscapes by RedBlueBlackSilver. Written & hosted by Ken Layne. Listen on the radio in Joshua Tree and across the Mojave High Desert on Z 107.7 FM, 10-11 p.m. Fridays.

Carl Jung’s Red Book Says You’re Not Depressed

Some people don’t go crazy. They go deep. Carl Jung was one of them—and The Red Book is proof. It wasn’t a breakdown. It was an initiation. He wasn’t depressed. He was awakening. And if you’re feeling lost, numb, or disconnected—you might be too. This isn’t just a theory. It’s the spiritual blueprint for breaking down and becoming whole again.

Some people don’t go crazy.
They go deep.
Carl Jung was one of them—and The Red Book is proof.

It wasn’t a breakdown.
It was an initiation.
He wasn’t depressed. He was awakening.
And if you’re feeling lost, numb, or disconnected—you might be too.

This isn’t just a theory.
It’s the spiritual blueprint for breaking down and becoming whole again.