@rcmacleod
Co-founder of Aftermath, a worker-owned site about video games, the internet, and everything that comes after. riley [at] aftermath [dot] site. Previously: Kotaku, Washington Post. Trans; he/him https://aftermath.site/
Great journalism takes time — a lot of time. If you want more of it, there’s really only one option: You’ve gotta support it. @jacksonwryan.com, who just published an eight-months-in-the-making report on a secretive gambling company, explains:
too many things look scammy!!
Got a scammy-looking email from my doctor's office because I haven't paid the scammy-looking text message bills for bloodwork, I never thought I'd say this but just send me a letter? Everything you send me looks like scams?
Our tiny little website currently has the 4th-placed story on r/all, which is doing all kinds of weird and beautiful things to our monthly traffic (which doesn't normally operate at anywhere near that scale)
Amazing work from @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social, as always!
aftermath.site/nintendo-tar...
i am relieved but damn
i'm torn between, 'you cannot lose to wales' and being happy for them
Fair play to Wales, damn
it's Jupiter lol, i wish it were Mars, that'd be so fun
The band is playing Holst's "The Planets" while Catherine Connolly shakes everyone's hand in this Ireland v Wales match, which is what my one year in high school marching band played, and boy I sure do remember how to play all of that
Added context: Nintendo is not alone. Other companies that have sued over Trump's tariffs recently include FedEx, UPS, Barnes & Noble, Costco, Revlon, Prada, Staples...
In terms of gaming companies, I haven't seen others
Great scoop by @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social
www.reuters.com/business/aut...
bombshell from @nicolecarpenter.bsky.social: nintendo is suing the US government over tariffs it deems “unlawful”
I've been really excited about and energized by these conversations, and also want to shout out how good @chasecarter.bsky.social is at running meetings
A post on X from the betting platform Polymarket that says “BREAKING: Anthropic CEO says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness, as the model has begun showing symptoms of anxiety.”
Literally as I’m arguing with someone about whether AI companies are misleading people into believing their technology possesses God-like super-intelligence I see this monstrosity
ugh i was looking for this story like crazy yesterday and couldn't for the life of me remember how to find it, bless
A few hours after NYT reported that the U.S. bombed an elementary school in Iran, killing many children, the White House last night posted this video mixing airstrike footage with Top Gun, Iron Man, Gladiator, Halo, Breaking Bad, Star Wars, John Wick, Superman, Transformers and Dragon Ball Z
This is a chilling crime. A shame on our country. The Iranian ship was unarmed. The US knew this. The sailors were murdered by our navy, and the survivors were left to die at sea.
newrepublic.com/post/207429/...
Kalshi employees "kind of understand that without the tweets and the streamers and all of the social-media stuff that the traders do for them, usually just for free, their marketing would be a lot harder," said Jack Campion, 20, a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Kalshi affiliate. In September, Kalshi briefly signed up a 15-year-old videogame streamer who goes by vertid online to promote its brand on X as an affiliate. A week later, Kalshi ended the partnership. "Yo brother, legal team confirmed that we can't work with minors rn," a Kalshi employee wrote to the user in messages reviewed by the Journal. "Kinda sad tbh."
what the fuck are we doing
www.wsj.com/business/med...
i'm in my 40s and my knee is fucked up just from being a knee
I think what's struck so many people about the White House CoD meme--or at least what struck me--is how, unlike Pokemon or Halo, there's way this one, in a fucked-up way, makes "sense," which says as much about games as it does about the 12-year-olds in our government.
On today's stream, we're joined by @jacksonwryan.com to discuss his months-in-the-works investigation of Clickout Media, the secretive company filling video game sites with gambling and AI, that he published on Aftermath. NOTE: Starting early today, at 3 PM ET
www.twitch.tv/aftermathdotsite
Am I The Problem? Small business taxes are due 3/16
OK come on, email subject lines
A man with the government has been at the last two hearings relating to the contempt claim. Both times, he sat in the section of the courtroom open only to parties and counsel. Although not at counsel’s table, Littman and Jean Lin, the other Justice Department lawyer present at both hearings, has repeatedly consulted with him during both hearings. After today’s hearing — and after not being able to figure out for myself who he was after the last hearing — I asked him who he was. I had my press pass visibly displayed and identified myself as a reporter. He said he didn’t want to do that. I suggested that he must be a government official or employee, sitting where he was, and, if so, I asked incredulously if he really was not going to tell a reporter at a hearing who he was. He said no. Then, the people leaving — myself included — got to the elevator. Littman, Lin, mystery man, and two other people sitting with mystery man on the government side of the courtroom during the hearing on Wednesday were getting into the elevator. Some of them were already in the elevator. When I stepped in, mystery man said he would wait for the next elevator. Everyone else then got out of the elevator. Left in the elevator alone, I looked at these five adults — all of whom I believe have to be government employees, hence, paid by the public and allegedly working for the public — and was some combination of bemused and appalled. “You are all ridiculous,” I simply said. The door closed.
And, the story of the mystery man.
www.lawdork.com/p/lamberth-c...
hm relatable
Some post-script that didn't make this piece:
A whole heap of expired websites with high authority can be used to rank well on Search. Buy em up, get their authority. That happened to the dormant Australianaid website.
In 2023, it campaigned for aid.
In 2025, it began listing Best Online Casinos.
Finally getting the time to sit down with this project (which we contributed some information to) and there is SO much useful stuff for people considering starting outlets, really cool!
rjionline.org/news/announc...
The White House just posted a video mixing real footage from the Iran strikes with a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
x.com/WhiteHouse/s...
What's fun about being a business' money guy is when the accountant sends you a host of tax forms to review and then you have to sit there pretending you understand them enough to review them
How embarrassing would it be to write back asking which lines I need to care about?
🙌
In a statement to news outlets, Google said that “Gemini is designed not to encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm. Our models generally perform well in these types of challenging conversations and we devote significant resources to this, but unfortunately AI models are not perfect.” “In this instance, Gemini clarified that it was AI and referred the individual to a crisis hotline many times,” Google continued. “We take this very seriously and will continue to improve our safeguards and invest in this vital work.”
oh well thank goodness
Reading this article while a big "Ask Gemini" button sits in the top of my browser and the whole thing tries to run rampant through my Gsuite is... something
futurism.com/artificial-i...
