On Friday, a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City opened: Monarch's Journey, featuring the work of cartoonist Peter Kuper.

From a museum statement:

"Wrapping the walls near the Museum's extensive butterfly research collection in the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, the exhibit explores the challenges monarchs face on their 3,000-mile flight through Kuper's bold illustrations, accompanied by a video installation of monarchs in motion.

— Read the rest

The post Gorgeous new monarch butterfly exhibit at NYC's Museum of Natural History appeared first on Boing Boing.

To those who quite literally make our lives sweeter, we are celebrating 5 of the best dessert spots in New York City. Each pick on our list gives you plenty of reason to skip a meal or two—save the calories for what truly sparks joy. Let it be understood: many viral businesses in my state are downright and objectively bad (which is why I miss those days when I could just pop into Moscow’s iconic Café Pushkin Patisserie or the wonderland that is St. Petersburg’s Eliseyevsky daily)… So if a glaring omission seems to have been made, it’s not due to a lack of diligence. I have unending complaints about the quality of desserts in New York, but that’s a topic for another article… One positive is that the Big Apple is home to a growing number of interesting Asian-influenced cafés, as this article reflects.

Before I reveal today’s deliciously informative main list, I’ll note that the soft serve at L’Industrie Pizza is as good as it gets. Similarly, the mango sticky rice at the Michelin-recommended Ayada Thai is another rare internet sensation that’s worth the hype — the Queens-born restaurant has a dine-in space and a second takeaway spot right inside Chelsea Market, so don’t be confused. Nearby, you can also check out Fabrique — when you catch them at the right time, their buns can be memorable, especially the ultra-soft vanilla buns. Also nearby, AnnTremet’s small black sesame and heart-shaped mango entremets are worth a detour. Lady M remains a go-to, with the passionfruit and black sesame crêpe cakes placing among my favorites. However, with so many boutiques in America and Asia, I didn’t feel that M was specific enough to New York to include below.

North of the city, I recommend Westchester’s La Tulipe Desserts — an epicurean paradise, owned by Maarten and Frances Steenman. Mr. Steenman, who hails from the Netherlands, has honed his craft at a dizzying list of revered establishments across Europe. His precision and skill are almost unmatched. Mrs. Steenman’s sense of aesthetics also elevates the patisserie and its offerings. If you venture to Beacon, you’ll find another master —Culinary Olympic Gold Medalist Chef Håkan Mårtensson owns and operates Håkan Chocolatier on the city’s Main Street.

Now, without further ado, we present our chosen New York City favorites!

1. Frenchette Bakery

As far as I’m concerned, I can’t praise Frenchette Bakery enough. Before I decided to try it, I hadn’t encountered viennoiserie in NYC in years that lived up to my expectations. Remarkably, Frenchette even surpasses expectations with the items on its pâtisserie and boulangerie menus. The art of French baking is almost gone in New York, with competitors serving brutal disappointments—even esteemed names from the other side of the pond seem to lose their integrity here. Thus, Frenchette, which cuts no corners, is a real godsend to those with discerning palates.

Frenchette Bakery maintains three storefronts. The first to open in 2020 was the less pastry-oriented Tribeca location, still tucked away in the uniquely charming space in the lobby of the neo-classical Merchant Square Building that used to belong to the beloved but sadly shuttered Arcade Bakery. Frenchette Bakery’s culinary wonders truly belong in a museum, so it’s fitting that its second residence is in The Whitney Museum of American Art. Finally, the Nolita refuge opened this past July. Chefs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr own the trio, along with the Frenchette restaurants, Wild Cherry, Le Rock, and Le Veau d’Or. The duo received a James Beard Award last year in the category of Outstanding Restaurateur(s) and won a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant (their Tribeca’s Frenchette) in 2019.

I personally love the relaxed yet chic Nolita setup—it boasts an elite charm and a great view, thanks in part to a lovely Ukrainian Orthodox Church and well-dressed locals. The staff members are always extremely kind and helpful. During my most recent visit, an exceptional employee named Kali introduced me to Frenchette’s Paris-Brest à La Pistache. I simply wasn’t prepared for the level of excellence contained therein: It was sublime in every respect. The Sicilian pistachio cream, generously piped, is fabulously overpowering—in fact, I firmly believe it’s the most concentrated pistachio dessert I’ve experienced. The choux, with its craquelin crust, is absolutely unbelievable, fresh and perfectly textured. Try the Éclair Suprême, filled with crème diplomate and finished with cocoa nibs over intense ganache, to see if it’s the best you’ve had; astonishingly, it’s about a foot long. Chef Michelle Palazzo also outdid herself with the tarte aux citron, which features little twists that unfold upon deconstruction.

Thanks to Chef Johann Cottier, the canelé, pain au chocolat, (again) croissants, and more are all must-tries that become must-repeats. The phenomenal pain aux raisins incorporates vanilla cream, currants, and orange. Its textures range from custardy to caramelized, due to the perfectionism with which it’s baked. Enjoy it layer by layer.

2. Lamoone

In Chinatown, the adorable, beautifully decorated neighborhood staple dubbed The Lamoone, or just Lamoone for short, will delight you in every way—it’s a rare beacon of Hygge in a bustling area that instantly transports you to Bangkok. The passion of Mr. and Mrs. Lee, the Thai couple behind Lamoone, translates into an all-around magnificent experience for customers — the Lees even go the extra mile with their packaging. Lamoone focuses on irresistible spins on Basque cheesecake, seamlessly blending European and Asian traditions. They also serve artfully prepared drinks.

The Lees couldn’t be more gracious, inviting guests to sit down and enjoy samples. They offer more than ten cheesecake flavors, each available in three sizes, making any decision nearly impossible. However, the fact that each exquisite variant is even better than it sounds doesn’t help. Although I feel that choosing a favorite would be a disservice to the other flavors, I tend to gravitate toward the vanilla because it’s full of vanilla seeds. Keep an eye out for seasonal creations like the mango sticky rice and corn mochi cheesecakes, both superb.

I stop by for a moment because I remember Mrs. Lee telling me about the lengths she and Mr. Lee go to to bring patrons the best. I find Mr. Lee manning the counter. He informs me, “We source our pandan from Ayutthaya, Thailand. We tried pandan from Vietnam and Indonesia, but we prefer pandan directly from Thailand, so we source it there. We source the ube from the Bohol province in the Philippines. That’s where a lot of the best ube is. […] The vanilla beans are from Madagascar, and the matcha is directly from Uji, Kyoto. […] And we source the Thai tea from Chiang Rai, Thailand — the best Thai tea is from there. […] We try to keep all our sources, even our coffee beans, from Asian countries. I think, to a certain extent, they’re underrepresented. Pandan, for example, is a fabulous flavor, but not many people are aware. We’re trying to bring more Asian-inspired flavors to the community.”

While Mr. Lee does all the baking, Mrs. Lee acts as the ideal curator: “She controls every flavor and, of course, my son does too.” The store’s interior design also owes to her vision. Head over now and support this amazing family, if you’re located close enough.

3. Lady Wong

Lady Wong is the brainchild of the Malaysian-born power couple Seleste Tan and Mogan Anthony, both chefs with a wealth of experience and accomplishments. The recognition Lady Wong has received from major outlets and influencers is well-earned. They offer a wide selection of indulgences: entremets, crepe cakes, short cakes, panna cotta, and more. Whether you want a small bite or an occasion cake, Lady Wong’s variety will ensure endless return visits; somehow, as if by some sort of wizardry, the gems on their counter always look gorgeous. The business clearly prioritizes consistency, freshness, and care in crafting. Their mango sticky rice tart and the especially gorgeous ube blackberry sphere, topped with silver leaf and bits of flower petals, are two standouts you will never tire of. Lady Wong is a stellar example of fusion done right; Tan and Anthony have clearly brought great innovation to the Brand. Ms. Tan’s background in French pastry, of course, shines through.

That said, one of Lady Wong’s most important strengths is that the establishment has taken it upon itself to introduce more New Yorkers to a rotating lineup of bite-sized treats grouped under the umbrella term kuih, bringing the flavors of Malaysia and Indonesia to life with imported ingredients. While the owners have said not everyone understands kuih, I don’t know how that’s possible, because they won me over at Wong from moment one. Wong’s rainbow lapis, apparently a bestseller, has made headlines, and the crazy part is that its vibrant colors come from natural ingredients like beet juice and butterfly pea flower.

The team members are attentive and courteous at Wong’s comfortable East Village home base — they’ll be happy to steer you in the right direction for your specific tastes. For Connecticut residents, Lady Wong has set up shop in Greenwich at La Bistro — another addictive, welcoming option that lets you dine at a table, sit at the bar, or take out.

4. RivaReno Gelato

Rivareno Gelato is, in my opinion, hands down the best traditional Italian gelateria in NYC. Their nut- and chocolate-based options are especially rich and creamy. The Contessa (almond cream, amaretti, cookies, and caramelized almonds) and the Zabaione (mascarpone, egg yolk, and Marsala wine) are equally indulgent in texture and earn my recommendation. RivaReno makes sorbets daily as well. RivaReno’s inclusion here largely comes down to their emphasis on top-notch ingredients (a theme of this article) and the meticulousness with which they formulate their recipes.

This international venture states on their website, “In 2004, four friends with very different backgrounds (a car company executive, a BBC journalist, a lawyer and a famous Bologna gelato-maker) joined forces to realize their shared ambition: making incredible gelato.” Only two other RivaReno brick-and-mortar stores exist in the US (both in Miami), so, fortunately, the Spring Street post is surrounded by fun shops.

5. Aokō Matcha

The Japanese-inspired Aokō Matcha, opened in 2025 by Isabella Pang, is defined by its use of high-quality ingredients. Both the gelato and refreshing soft serve are excellent. Adventurous visitors can choose from their enticing parfait options. Aokō is known for its five levels of matcha intensity in its gelato, letting you enjoy the many shades of green. You should also try their other natural, powerful flavors like taro and black sesame. Of course, Aōko also specializes in drinks.

I recommend specifically visiting their original West Village haven. It’s a nice, spotless place to relax while nourishing your senses or meet up with friends. The staff is very kind and happy to explain the menu.

The post 5 NYC Dessert Spots That Are Actually Worth the Hype appeared first on VICE.

Tom Gammill stars in an absolutely hilarious new limited-run play in New York City, A Morning with Ernie Bushmiller.

Ernie Bushmiller was the author of the comic strip Nancy, about a little girl living with her glamorous Aunt Fritzi, and her tough boyfriend Sluggo, which he produced for hundreds of newspapers from 1938-1982. — Read the rest

The post A theatrical morning with Nancy's Ernie Bushmiller appeared first on Boing Boing.

A federal judge decried the “cruelty” detainees experienced inside Manhattan’s infamous ICE detention center in a court ruling filed on Thursday. 

Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan offered graphic depictions of “overcrowding, sleep deprivation, insufficient food and water, inadequate medical care, and restrictions on access to counsel” at 26 Federal Plaza in his ruling, which permanently limited the number of detainees that can be held at the facility going forward. The scathing assessment and court ordered changes were the conclusion of a class action suit filed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement that originated with a man who had been held in the building. 

Along with detailing holding cells that he described as “anything but sanitary,” Kaplan recounted multiple instances where ICE personnel were found to be “lying” about the conditions inside the building.

“By detaining far more persons in the hold rooms than ever was intended and for far longer than ever was intended, ICE objectively deprived detainees of sleep, sanitary living conditions, basic personal hygiene needs, sufficient food and water, and adequate medical care. ICE prevented detainees from accessing counsel, who might have stood in the way of what it was doing,” Kaplan wrote, adding, “Some of these deprivations impacted detainees immediately; others only after longer periods. ICE knew, or should have known, that how it was treating detainees was wrong, yet it continued to do it anyway. It did so to inflict punishment on detainees and induce them to self-deport.”

The judge’s ruling provided a window inside 26 Federal Plaza, which has been ground zero in New York City for the unprecedented wave of immigration deportations and detentions that have taken place during President Donald Trump’s second term. TPM has previously reported from the halls of the building where migrants have been taken by masked ICE agents as they showed up for court appearances in ongoing immigration legal proceedings. Our prior coverage has noted how activists and members of Congress have previously raised alarms about the conditions inside the facility and the legality of these detentions, many of which were ultimately reversed by court order. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, responded to this reporting from TPM and other news organizations by denying the existence of a “detention center” in the building and insisting migrants were only there for “processing.” 

However, in his ruling Kaplan detailed brutal circumstances in which migrants were held inside the floors occupied by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza. He noted the agency’s space in the building is not supposed to be a detention facility and only has “so-called ‘hold rooms’ that were intended and designed only for very short-term custody – twelve hours or less – of arrested persons pending their transfer to other facilities.” According to the judge, these rooms “have no showers, no beds, no cots, no windows, and lack many other things found in prisons and detention facilities.” In response to Trump’s “mass deportation” agenda, Kaplan said ICE was “misusing” 26 Federal Plaza.

“It has overcrowded severely the 26 Fed hold rooms, subjecting detainees for extended periods to inhumane conditions that violate the Constitution, not to mention any decent concern for the Golden Rule or the demands of humanity,” Kaplan wrote.

TPM reached out to ICE and DHS for a response to the judge’s ruling. Without providing any evidence, an unnamed DHS spokesperson gave TPM  a statement that, essentially, denied many of the judge’s conclusions. 

“DHS complies with all lawful court orders. 26 Federal Plaza is not a long-term detention facility; it is a short term-holding facility. Detainees are only at 26 Federal Plaza for a short period while they are being processed and awaiting transfer,” the spokesperson said. “Ensuring the safety, security, and well-being of individuals in ICE custody remains a top priority.”

The DHS spokesperson further argued that detainees place themselves in this situation by not leaving the country on their own.

“Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now,” the spokesperson said, adding, “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream.”

While self deporting is indeed an option, many of the people who have been placed in immigration detention centers during the second Trump administration are legally requesting asylum and have claimed they would be endangered in their home countries. Others have spent years lawfully living in the United States and have families here. 

Kaplan specifically focused on conditions at the facility last summer, as his ruling came in response to a class action lawsuit that originated in August 2025 with Sergio Alberto Barco Mercado, an immigrant who says he was detained at 26 Federal Plaza while trying to attend his court hearings in conjunction with seeking legal asylum. Mercado’s class action lawsuit included other detainees held at the facility as plaintiffs. Throughout legal proceedings surrounding the case, Kaplan previously ordered changes at the facility, including placing limits on the amount of people who could be  put in “hold rooms” and expanding access to attorneys for detainees. In his final ruling, Kaplan accused ICE of not complying with the court. 

“The facts show that ICE repeatedly has violated this Court’s orders either by intentionally flouting them or by employing so-called ‘best’ efforts that simply have not been good enough,” Kaplan wrote. 

Kaplan’s ruling included images showing just how cramped the hold rooms were inside 26 Federal Plaza. The pictures, which show detainees had no ability to lie down, are eerily reminiscent of similar documentation of slave ships.

Along with sheer overcrowding, Kaplan’s report documented unhealthy conditions, including lack of water, food, medical care, clean clothes and bathroom facilities. He noted that ICE officials attempted to dispute this, however, the judge rejected their denials. In multiple instances, Kaplan referred to statements made by Nancy Zanello, who was the field office’s assistant director between July and October of 2025 as “not credible” based on the evidence.

“While Zanello refused to admit that the hold rooms ever smelled bad, that denial is belied by the fact that she at one point felt that a group of detainees’ complaints regarding the lack of showers had such merit that she personally went out and bought empty water bottles and baby shampoo, filled the bottles with warm tap water, and allowed those detainees to wash themselves one-by-one in an empty hold room,” Kaplan wrote. 

Text messages from Zanello and other officials that were previously exposed during the case revealed they were aware of infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, running rampant inside 26 Federal Plaza. 

Along with the physical conditions inside the building, Kaplan decried the lack of access to attorneys given to detainees at 26 Federal Plaza. The judge said the facility “essentially was a black site prior to his initial court orders. He claimed ICE engaged in various tactics including “lying,” “erecting procedural roadblocks,” and failing to update databases with information about detainees’ locations to prevent them from contacting attorneys. And Kaplan said these issues persisted following his initial interventions.

“Even after that point, ICE continued to prevent detainees from making confidential legal calls,” Kaplan wrote, adding, “No legitimate governmental interests could justify so depriving detainees of the ability to obtain timely legal advice, particularly when there are feasible alternatives that would minimize the burden on detainees’ First and Fifth Amendment rights.” 

Kaplan’s ruling includes witness testimony from detainees, including one who said “one guard . . . would sometimes hold a bottle of water up and people would wait to have him squirt some into our mouths, like we were animals and not people” and another who said people “had to drink water from the sinks next to the toilets.” Kaplan said “several” detainees recounted “ICE staff and contractors beating” people held at 26 Federal Plaza. Others claimed food was essentially “slop” that was provided only rarely. Multiple detainees described losing large amounts of weight while being held in the facility. Meanwhile, another witness quoted by the judge said “guards would eat their own food …  like pizza and hamburgers” in front of the detainees as though they were “jeering.”

These accounts from 26 Federal Plaza echo allegations that have surfaced about the conditions inside other ICE facilities around the country. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and his staff on the Judiciary Committee have previously published reports detailing alarming conditions at ICE detention centers in Texas, Florida and Louisiana. 

“And 26 Fed is not unique,” Kaplan wrote in his ruling. “Comparable litigation has been brought in several other locations with respect to several other ICE detention and holding facilities.” 

Kaplan specifically referred to another federal judge who described a situation that “shocks the conscience” involving “chillingly brutal conditions of confinement” inside ICE holding rooms at a courthouse in Central Islip on New York’s Long Island. 

At multiple points in his ruling, Kaplan rejected arguments made by attorneys representing the government, including their attempts to claim the suit was “overbroad” and should not cover present and future detainees in the building regardless of how long they are being held. Along with mandating permanent improvements at 26 Federal Plaza including sufficient space for each detainee, lights being dimmed during overnight hours, sleeping materials, and three meals daily, Kaplan certified the class action suit to cover all present and future detainees. As he did so, Kaplan made clear that, despite all of the serious concerns and allegations, with the mass deportation wave ongoing, the detention facility at 26 Federal Plaza is expected to remain in operation. 

“ICE has detained thousands of individuals at 26 Fed,” Kaplan wrote. “There is little doubt that it will continue to detain thousands more.” 

Today's links

• Digital sewer socialism: Mamdani's Public Interest Technologists are what DOGE should have been.
• Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
• Object permanence: Robot garage takes hostages; Thermostat ransomware; Correlate audience exhalations; Judges x TOR; Expectations management.
• Upcoming appearances: Edinburgh, Sydney, Melbourne, Brighton, London, South Bend.
• Recent appearances: Where I've been.
• Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
• Colophon: All the rest.

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Digital sewer socialism (permalink)

Hardly a day goes by without my getting an email from someone looking for a way to do good with technology. From computer science students thinking about post-grad careers to seasoned coders with decades of experience, there's an army of hackers looking for a way to turn their expertise into public goods.

There's a name for this movement: it's called "Public Interest Technology" and the people who work in it are called "public interest technologists." There've always been techies who understood the link between tech and public wellbeing and who committed themselves to working for the betterment of society, but their numbers swelled as Big Tech companies saturated their markets and switched from growing by making products people like, to locking in their users and then extracting more value from their technological prisoners:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

It was the era when (in the words of Facebook's Jeff Hammerbacher) "The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads":

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/06/12/click/

For organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the growing cohort of hackers who wanted to hack for good was great news. Our staff technologist group swelled from a couple of overworked computer scientists helping lawyers and activists with campaigns to a series of increasingly ambitious software projects, from Privacy Badger (a tracking-blocker that every web user needs):

https://privacybadger.org/

To Let's Encrypt and Certbot, projects that forever changed the internet's default state, so that today, nearly all online communications are encrypted and resistant to mass surveillance:

https://certbot.eff.org/

Other opportunities for public interest technologists proliferated. Bruce Schneier created the canonical resource page for Public Interest Technologists, including career opportunities for would-be public interest technologists:

https://public-interest-tech.com/

But the motherlode of public interest technologist opportunities wasn't the nonprofit sector – it was the public sector. It started with the UK's Government Digital Service, a group of public-spirited hackers (many of them ex- of the BBC, where they'd been tempest-tossed by endless internal power-struggles over the role of the internet in public service media) who retooled many of the UK government's most important administrative front-ends. For several glorious years, Britons delighted to the daily marvel of having their routine interactions with their government transformed from clunky, broken web-pages to slick, superbly thought through online processes that had all the polish of Amazon or Google, but without any of the gamesmanship, manipulation or privacy invasions:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Digital_Service

Despite many attempts at official sabotage by a string of increasingly shambolic UK governments, the GDS still exists, and it still does amazing work, even though it operates today with a fraction of the official support that it enjoyed at its inception. The last time I renewed my UK passport, I was gobsmacked by how easy and sensible the process was. Local authorities have gotten in on the act, too: I renewed my absentee voting registration with Hackney Council last week and it was as simple as scanning a QR code, affirming my details, and clicking "submit."

Around the world, a generation of public sector technologists duplicated and improved on the UK GDS's work. In Taiwan, a rogue public interest hacker named Audrey Tang led a group of digital guerrillas in creating shadow versions of every Taiwanese government website that scraped and remade the entire digital presence of the Taiwanese state to make public information and services accessible, legible and useful to its people. After the next election, Tang was named Taiwan's first ever Minister of Digital Affairs (today, she is a Taiwanese "Ambassador-At-Large"):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang

In the USA, Jen Pahlka went from running a ragtag "civic hacking" org called Code For America to helping to found the United States Digital Service under Obama, bringing some of that UK GDS spirit to America's dreadful online presence, which had been largely built and maintained by beltway bandits who'd billed handsomely and delivered some of the internet's greatest crimes against usability:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Digital_Service

But the USDS's legacy is bitter. In 2025, USDS was effectively dismantled and replaced with DOGE, Elon Musk's handpicked team of tech-bro cultists who set out to dismantle as much of the US government as possible, deliberately sabotaging the usability of America's governmental systems to make it harder for the public to access the services they are entitled to and pay for with their taxes.

My own run-in with this was my attempt to get a certificate of citizenship for my daughter when she turned 18: all I could find was an online form that started by requiring me to list the dates and flight numbers for every trip I'd taken to the USA from the time I was born to the day I became a US citizen, a 50+ year period that started with a trip to visit my snowbird grandparents in Florida when I was six months old. The entire support and advice service for the US Customs and Immigration Service has been replaced with a DOGE chatbot that repeatedly emails and texts links to the form, no matter what question you ask, and no matter whether you call, email or use the website's chat interface:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/06/doge-ball/#n-600

Many of the DOGE kids were monsters. The most chilling DOGE story I've heard was the anonymous testimony of NIH officials who begged the DOGE children who were dismantling their work to spare some long-running cancer research projects whose great promise would be vaporized if they were interrupted. The DOGE kids laughed at these entreaties, saying that once Musk had perfected "General AI" we wouldn't need cancer research, because their tame AI god would cure cancer.

But not every DOGE operator was a digital arsonist. Take Dan Berulis, a DOGE staffer who came out of the private sector and later turned whistleblower over the group's activities, who now faces assassination attempts:

https://www.wired.com/story/he-blew-the-whistle-on-doge-then-his-brakes-were-cut/

Berulis joined DOGE to improve America's digital infrastructure, not to dismantle it. When he talks about his motives, he sounds like an early GDS pioneer, one of Audrey Tang's direct-action government data scrapers, or one of the Code For America hackers who followed Pahlka to USDS:

https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/nx-s1-5355896/doge-nlrb-elon-musk-spacex-security

DOGE was a catastrophe. It left America's government digital presence in far worse shape than it found it, and even the modest savings it claimed to have made from all this destruction turn out to be lies:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/elon-musk-doge-made-big-110000036.html

But as Berulis demonstrates, there is a bipartisan group of skilled, ethical technologists who are desperate to do meaningful public interest work. Their numbers swell every day, as Big Tech continues to curdle – no longer merely sclerotic and enshittifying monopolies, now active participants in Trump's authoritarian dismantling of democracy itself:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/06/america-with-chinese-characteristics/#orphaned-syrian-refugees-need-not-apply

Tech bosses' gleeful mass layoffs mean that tech workers can no longer count on good treatment and stable, high-earning careers; at the same time, tech bosses' betrayal of democracy makes the prospect of working for a tech company far more ethically dubious than mere ad-tech optimizations. The result is a bumper crop of geeks looking for ways to do good with their lives and skills – as all the emails in my inbox asking for advice about this attests.

Enter NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has made "public excellence" the cornerstone of his politics, hiring the most skilled workers he can find and then giving them all the authority and resources they need to fix 100,000 potholes, bring New York's worst landlords to justice, and deliver every day for all the people of New York:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/15/unconscionability/#standalone-authority

Mamdani has just unveiled his Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crews: five "game changing" teams of public interest hackers who will remake NYC's digital services:

https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2026/07/transcript–mayor-mamdani-launches–public-interest-technology–

Writing for Wired, Steven "Hackers" Levy paints a portrait of New York's PIT Crews, describing them as "what DOGE should have been":

https://www.wired.com/story/mamdani-assembles-his-nyc-tech-team/

I'll go farther than that: the PIT Crews – and Mamdani's project as a whole – is delivering the entire failed promise of DOGE. Unlike Musk and Trump, Mamdani is actually rooting out fraud and waste. The reason Mamdani can do this – and the reason billionaires can't – is that the fraud and waste that undermines governments at all levels come from the super-rich, with their tax-dodging, their no-bid contracts, their addiction to public subsidies.

Musk owes his riches to federal bailouts and contracts: if he wants to "eliminate government fraud and waste" he should turn over his files to an IRS inspector (if he can find a survivor of the DOGE massacre) and surrender himself for a lengthy prison sentence. For Musk, "government fraud and waste" is a single mom on food stamps who misses a box on a 600-page form because she's exhausted from working three jobs to make rent – not a no-bid contractor trousering billions in public funds for projects that overcharge and underdeliver.

Mamdani's PIT Crews are "small groups of engineers and designers will strive to change the hidebound and confusing nature of current city services by using state-of-art skills to rapidly whip up specialized apps that solve real problems." Mamdani says that they'll "raise expectations on what government can deliver, because we really can deliver."

As Levy describes it, the big difference between the Obama-era USDS and 2026's PIT Crews is "a skeptical, almost adversarial, stance toward Big Tech." NYC's PIT Crews explicitly recruit top-tier hacker talent who want to "make software that doesn't serve advertisers, the military, or the pocketbooks of centibillionaires."

Their inaugural chief is Lisa Gelobter, a veteran of both tech firms and the USDS, who says that "Without technology, policy is just words written on a piece of paper." The first project on her roster is implementing "Click to Cancel," a policy inaugurated by Lina Khan, Biden's FTC Chief – and then dismantled by Trump. Under Click to Cancel, companies are required to create one-click workflows to cancel subscriptions and memberships, ending the pernicious, incredibly profitable practice of trapping people with impossible-to-halt recurring billings. Today, Khan is running Mamdani's Economic Development Board, and her Click to Cancel rule is back – for New Yorkers, at least:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/22/lina-khan-nyc-economic-development-board

NYC PIT Crew's new Click to Cancel site will be live when the policy takes effect on Oct 1. It's a whistleblower site that will make it easy to report merchants who make it hard to get shut of their online Roach Motels (users check in, but they don't check out). It's estimated the Click to Cancel rule will save New Yorkers $160m in the first year alone – but only if Mamdani can enforce it, which is why this website is so critical.

This focus on meat-and-potatoes service delivery was once dismissed as "sewer socialism," an unserious form of progressive politics with an undue focus on improving people's daily lives at the expense of high-flying political change. Today, Mamdani is at the vanguard of an army of proud sewer socialists, who say that once you deliver for people in their day-to-day existence, they will trust you and back you when you fight for deep, structural changes (and the corollary: if you can't deliver for people in their daily lives, why should they trust you when you claim that you'll make everything better?):

https://prospect.org/2026/04/10/zohran-mamdani-getting-new-york-city-believe-in-government/

3,000 techies applied for 35 jobs with NYC's PIT Crews, and, as Levy writes, many of them are high-flying senior coders who are willing to take a massive pay-cut and forfeit their stock options to do something that's both technically excellent and meaningful to their users' lives.

It's a clear message to other leaders, at every level of government. Many of the most skilled, ambitious people in every field want to make the world a better place. Every city, county and state could use a squadron of PIT Crews, and there's an army of coders who would give anything for the chance to give everything to make a better world.

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Hey look at this (permalink)

• What Was the Internet? https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/what-was-the-internet/

• BMW Suddenly Blasts Its Cars’ Internal Screens With Aggressive Advertisements https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/bmw-suddenly-blasts-cars-advertisements

• People in the midwest know what a livestream is https://www.garbageday.email/p/people-in-the-midwest-know-what-a-livestream-is

• how Google can go legit https://blog.zgp.org/how-google-can-go-legit/

• The Yardstick That Ate the Market https://itsg13.substack.com/p/the-yardstick-that-ate-the-market

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Object permanence (permalink)

#25yrsago Moscow's pirate music market https://web.archive.org/web/20010912203143/https://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,45908,00.html

#25yrsago Webcomics v trad comics https://web.archive.org/web/20010821073756/https://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/08/09/comics/index.html

#25yrsago Aussie teens are addicted to their phones https://web.archive.org/web/20010818220523/http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/story_5807.asp

#20yrsago Canadian librarians decry “Captain Copyright” https://web.archive.org/web/20060813004140/https://cla.ca/Access_Copyright_CptCopy_let_Final_.pdf

#20yrsago TiVo/Macrovision screw up breaks devices again https://zatznotfunny.com/2006-08/tivo-macrovision-and-the-stealth-broadcast-flag/

#20yrsago Will the Supreme Court strike down the TSA’s secret laws? https://papersplease.org/gilmore/

#20yrsago Robot garage loses software license, strands parkers https://web.archive.org/web/20060809213517/https://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71554-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

#15yrsago Typewriter-part penguin https://web.archive.org/web/20111116020049/http://jemayer.tumblr.com/post/8674700147

#15yrsago Choosing Android because you don’t trust Google https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/aug/09/technology-failure-more-important-than-success

#15yrsago HOWTO sound Canadian https://web.archive.org/web/20110610104919/http://www.oed.com/public/canadianenglish

#15yrsago Lev Grossman’s The Magician King: fantasy sequel, the banality of magic and the magic of banality https://memex.craphound.com/2011/08/09/lev-grossmans-the-magician-king-fantasy-sequel-the-banality-of-magic-and-the-magic-of-banality/

#10yrsago Rosie the Riveter, Ghostbusters edition https://www.deviantart.com/hugohugo/art/We-Can-Bust-It-621803816

#10yrsago Thai telcoms regulator wants tourists to use location-tracking SIMs https://web.archive.org/web/20160812182254/https://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/Thailand-mulls-location-tracking-tourist-SIM-cards-30292551.html

#10yrsago Mysterious medical research consortium: we should own volunteers’ clinical trial data for 5 years https://www.techdirt.com/2016/08/08/medical-researchers-want-up-to-five-years-exclusivity-clinical-trial-data-derived-volunteers/

#10yrsago Illegal “Warranty Void If Removed” still ubiquitous: they’re on the Xbox One S https://web.archive.org/web/20160809092923/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-xbox-one-s-still-uses-microsofts-illegal-warranty-void-if-removed-sticker

#10yrsago Your medical data: misappropriated by health-tech companies, off-limits to you https://web.archive.org/web/20180806230935/https://www.wired.com/2016/02/our-medical-data-must-become-free/

#10yrsago Return of Dieselgate: 3 more hidden programs found in VW Audi/Porsche firmware https://www.reuters.com/article/us-volkswagen-emissions-audi-idUSKCN10I0PB/

#10yrsago Timelapse of pills dissolving: “decaying clowns” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rY3X4xafs0

#10yrsago Proof-of-concept ransomware for smart thermostats demoed at Defcon https://web.archive.org/web/20161020083358/https://www.pentestpartners.com/blog/thermostat-ransomware-a-lesson-in-iot-security/

#10yrsago Compounds in human exhalations during movies vary in response to suspense and comedy https://www.nature.com/articles/srep25464

#10yrsago How racist traffic stops criminalize black people, and what to do about it https://www.vox.com/2016/8/5/12364580/police-overcriminalization-net-widening

#10yrsago Chicago cops switched off bodycams and high-fived after shooting unarmed black teen https://web.archive.org/web/20160807194244/http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/08/chicago-pd-paul-oneal-video/

#10yrsago DoJ to judges: use Tor to protect your internet connection https://web.archive.org/web/20160807025945/http://motherboard.vice.com/read/department-of-justice-official-tells-hundred-federal-judges-to-use-tor

#5yrsago Expectations management pluralistic.net/2021/08/08/expectations-management-part-v/

#5yrsago When your boss wants an AI camera in your bedroom https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/09/computer-says-no/#disciplinary-tech

#5yrsago The 22 Murders of Madison May https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/09/computer-says-no/#existential-crisis

#1yrago Millionaire on billionaire violence https://pluralistic.net/2025/08/09/elite-disunity/#awoken-giants

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Upcoming appearances (permalink)

• Virtual: EFFecting Change: Who the Machine Serves, Aug 12
  https://www.eff.org/event/effecting-change-who-machine-serves

• Edinburgh International Book Festival with Jimmy Wales, Aug 17
  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/events/the-front-list-cory-doctorow-and-jimmy-wales

• Sydney: The Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Aug 23-24
  https://festivalofdangerousideas.com/program/

• Melbourne: Enshittification at the Wheeler Centre, Aug 25
  https://www.wheelercentre.com/events-tickets/season-2026/cory-doctorow-enshittification

• Brighton: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Carole Cadwalladr (Brighton Dome), Sep 8
  https://brightondome.org/whats-on/LSC-cory-doctorow-the-reverse-centaurs-guide-to-life-after-ai/

• London: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI with Riley Quinn (Foyle's Picadilly), Sep 9
  https://www.foyles.co.uk/events/enshittification-cory-doctorow-riley-quinn

• South Bend: An Evening With Cory Doctorow (Notre Dame), Oct 6
  https://franco.nd.edu/events/2026/10/06/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow/

• Vancouver: BC Policy Solutions Gala, Nov 12
  https://bcpolicy.ca/gala/

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Recent appearances (permalink)

• The AI Enshittification Bubble (Hidden Forces)
  https://hiddenforces.io/podcasts/the-ai-enshittification-bubble-cory-doctorow/

• F@#$ the AI Overlords (On The Media)
  https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/f-the-ai-overlords

• Why AI Won't Replace Workers, But Will Crash The Economy (Smart Cookies)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRRmUuxJolY

• AI and the Enshittification Era (The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dAIJRjb-Bw

• AI is not inevitable (Betakit)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbiTVkq1WHo

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Latest books (permalink)

• "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book about being a better AI critic, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, June 2026
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374621568/thereversecentaursguidetolifeafterai/

• "Canny Valley": A limited edition collection of the collages I create for Pluralistic, self-published, September 2025 https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/04/illustrious/#chairman-bruce

• "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
  https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

• "Picks and Shovels": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

• "The Bezzle": a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (thebezzle.org).

• "The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org).

• "The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).

• "Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com.

• "Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com

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Upcoming books (permalink)

• "The Post-American Internet," a geopolitical sequel of sorts to Enshittification, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2027

• "Unauthorized Bread": a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, April 20, 2027

• "Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It" (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2027

• "The Memex Method," Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2027

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Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

• “Once Is Enemy Action,” a science fiction novel about the origins of modern technofascism. Friday's words: 564 (2916 total).

• "The Post-American Internet," a sequel to "Enshittification," about the better world the rest of us get to have now that Trump has torched America. Fourth draft completed. Submitted to editor.

• A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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This work – excluding any serialized fiction – is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

---

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"When life gives you SARS, you make sarsaparilla" -Joey "Accordion Guy" DeVilla

READ CAREFULLY: By reading this, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.

ISSN: 3066-764X

If you’ve felt like smoothies have gotten suspiciously expensive, you’re not wrong. We now live in a world where $17 blends with spirulina and collagen are a bit too normal—especially if you’re shopping somewhere like Erewhon. These LA luxury grocery stores aren’t just health havens; they’ve become known for their celebrity-backed smoothies, like Hailey Bieber’s now-famous Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie loaded with sea moss, peptides, and hyaluronic acid. I’ve even heard of hotels licensing the rights to serve these viral drinks in their lounges. This is not your average fruit smoothie.

While I don’t splurge often, I’ve definitely noticed the growing hype. Back in college, there was always a long line at the açai bowl truck that parked near the far quad (sometimes rivaling the line when Raising Cane’s opened). I never totally got the appeal or the price, but it was clearly a thing. And this wasn’t even in LA or New York—it was in east central Illinois, where smoothie prices still capped around $12 back then.

Read More >>

As a part of Snack Shop series, Annie Arriaga investigates the latest and greatest viral snack shops in New York City to see if the hype is real, if the snacks are yummy, and if the spot is underrated, overrated, or perfectly rated.

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One of the most beautiful parts about living in New York City, other than the ultra-viral restaurants or expensive flavored lattes, is getting to visit historic food institutions that have been serving up iconic dishes for decades, even centuries. I had to switch it up this week and finally satisfy my craving for a rainbow cookie—we chose Venieros in the East Village as the spot for Snack Shop this week.

Read More >>

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As a part of Snack Shop series, Annie Arriaga investigates the latest and greatest viral snack shops in New York City to see if the hype is real, if the snacks are yummy, and if the spot is underrated, overrated, or perfectly rated.

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It’s no secret that I have a sweet tooth, so it makes perfect sense that I’d jump at the chance to go to a brand new mochi-centered dessert shop in the East Village when I saw it pop up on my feed. Mochi in its truest form as a Japanese sticky rice cake is delicious, but walk around New York City and you’ll find everything from mochi donuts to mochi cake slices. It's not new to the American market, and it's definitely outlived the trend cycle to become a mainstay in both American and Japanese dessert culture.

Read More >>

As a part of Snack Shop series, Annie Arriaga investigates the latest and greatest viral snack shops in New York City to see if the hype is real, if the snacks are yummy, and if the spot is underrated, overrated, or perfectly rated.

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You’ve heard of a bar crawl, but what about a coffee crawl? One of the many beautiful things about New York City is that there are coffee shops on every corner, each one with its own specific vibe, specialty drink, and ambiance. When I heard Audrey Finnochario was coming from Rhode Island to shoot with us, I proposed we go on a coffee crawl through some of Manhattan’s most internet-popular coffee creations (with the Nitro Bar queen herself) to make the most of her visit to the Big Apple.

Read More >>

As a part of Snack Shop series, Annie Arriaga investigates the latest and greatest viral snack shops in New York City to see if the hype is real, if the snacks are yummy, and if the spot is underrated, overrated, or perfectly rated.

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If you’re a matcha girlie like me, you’ve had more bad matcha than good matcha in New York City. Coffee shops often make the mistake of treating matcha like they treat coffee, but it’s much more complicated than that. Preparing matcha, in its most traditional form, is a special and sacred ritual done with mindfulness and intention. The quality of water used and the specific whisking technique varies depending on if it's meant to be made into a latte or drunk straight up.

Read More >>