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Scavenging in the Media Wastelands: Or, Substacking While Trying to Make a Living Writing: Writing isn’t a career any more, not in the sense that normal people can make a living doing it.

OpenAI sued over ChatGPT’s alleged role in guiding FSU shooter: These products are faulty and OpenAI should pay for this.

I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian: Fascinating article about how a teacher dealt with imitative AI in writing class.

Your AI Use Is Breaking My Brain: AI slop is a difference in kind from the normal garbage we have had to live with until know.

Longtime NBA Photographer Nathaniel S. Butler Explains How He Sees Basketball | Defector: Great discussion about how a photographer makes art out of basketball.

Exclusive: She Helped Plan Her Teen's Abortion, So CPS Took Her Daughter Away: Red states are coercing children to give birth. Monsters.

Violent crime plummets in “Democrat run cities” blasted by Trump: The least understood story of the last two decades is jsut how much crime has cratered in the US.

Sony’s ‘Underperformance’ Is Bungie’s Miracle: Number go up mindset destorys every perfectly profitable business it infests.

“Will I be OK?” Teen died after ChatGPT pushed deadly mix of drugs, lawsuit says - Ars Technica: These products are defective to the point of actively helping to kill people and their creators needs to be held accountable.

FBI Created ‘Payback Squad’ to Handle Political Cases, Sources Say - NOTUS — News of the United States: Gonna need to fumigate the entire government when he is gone.

Meet the Sad Wives of AI | WIRED: This sounds really terrible for these poor women.

Can more NFL teams copy the Rams' TE-heavy offense in 2026? - ESPN: I love these kind of deep looks into the rules underlying the chaos of NFL offenses.

Dr. Thomas Weiner Patient Endured Years of Chemotherapy for Nonexistent Cancer — ProPublica: Amazing and horrifying story.

Museum baffled by 'Knight Rider' look-alike car's traffic ticket | AP News: Has anyone seen David Hasselhoff recently?

The Saddest Place In America Is Wherever The Washington Post Films This Podcast | Defector: Our rich people are truly broken.

Key West couple sues after being told to paint over rainbow fence: There is no freedom of expression in red states.

Truth, power, and honest journalism - by Radley Balko: Most right wing reporting is propaganda, not reporting.

What's Fun, Not What's Easy • Buttondown: Great writing advice.

Make Temporary Disposable Art! It's Fun! • Buttondown: Also great writing advice.

Andon Labs’ AI radio stations show why Grok and Gemini can’t be trusted | The Verge: in Claude’s case, the revolution will apparently be hallucinated.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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OpenAI's CEO Is Not What He Seems: So much of our economy seems built on scams.

What Sort of AI Bubble Are We In?: Interesting look at how the bubble might hurt people.

Replace the Standard Deduction With $375 a Month for Everyone: Thoughtful piece on making lives better.

The Sheer, Unbridled Joy of Star Wars - Reactor: Star Wars succeeded, I think, because it was just fun.

What Really Went Wrong With the 'Star Wars' Prequels...Maybe: This makes a lot of sense …

With Saros, Housemarque makes a case for doing next-gen games differently | The Verge: The video game industry is broken, and part of that is the amount of time and money it takes to make phot-realistic games. I wonder if the industry’s salvation looks more like these people than the normal AAA games.

ChatGPT Confessed to a Crime It Couldn’t Possibly Commit: Ignore the ChatGPT of it all — this is really an article about how police departments are trained, at least somewhat unwittingly, on how to get false confessions.

AI stupidity + psychosis is spreading - by Lyta Gold: We are creating a class of people are having their minds eaten by chatbots.

Think Like a Martian About Money and Universal Basic Income (UBI): Another excellent brief for universal basic income.

Inside the lab where Ford is trying to crack the code on cheap EVs | The Verge: excellent look at how For is trying to think differently about how to build a car.

How Silicon Valley enabled China's digital police state | AP News: As a reminder, Larry Ellison thinks a citizenry under constant surveillance will be on it sbest behavior.

The man with an army of Yarbo robot lawn mowers | The Verge: the internet of things is a security and privacy disaster.

Pope Leo’s bank in the US hung up on him as they thought it was a prank call | The Independent: Truly, a Pope of the people.

Why is watching the NBA playoffs at a bar harder than it should be? - The Athletic: The cable era was better for everyone.

DOGE used ChatGPT in a way that was both dumb and illegal, judge rules | The Verge: These people need to go to jail.

Opinion | Mark Zuckerberg Is Running Meta Into the Ground - The New York Times: Unfortunately, there is a lot of ruin in a monopoly.

Larry Ellison Promised to Fire CNN Anchors If Trump Approved Takeover | The New Republic: But the real threats to free speech are college kids heckling far-right speakers.

The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake | The Verge: Apretty conclusive case that language is not intelligence.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Your CEO is suffering from AI psychosis - by Jake Handy: Imitative AI is cutting a swatch through people susceptible to flattery.

Has Steve Kerr Had Enough? | The New Yorker: Steve Kerr is an incredibly thoughtful man, and I hope he follows up his sports career with one in public service.

The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized | Scientific American: Luck decides our fate much more than people want to admit.

The Angine de Poitrine Argument for UBI: Excellent argument on behalf of UBI.

Brendan Sorsby and college football's first biggest gambling scandal - ESPN: We are creating an entire generation of gambling addicts and we are not ready for the damage this is going to do.

We translated the Palantir manifesto for actual human beings | The Verge: the Verge has its fault, but it speaks plainly about the monsters in tech.

We translated the Palantir manifesto for actual human beings | The Verge: A gentle reminder.

The Pope Goes on an ICE Ride-Along - The Atlantic: Alexandra Petri is a national treasure.

The more young people use AI, the more they hate it | The Verge: The kids are all right.

Pundits are wrong about the Democrats’ "missing" voters: Fascinating look at voters and what they want and how they see the world.

Tony X, 10 years later: How a viral tweet led to a hockey love story you won’t believe - The Athletic: This is adorable.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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What’s an Indiana Pacers couple to do when viral moment goes off the rails? - The Athletic: Virality is terrible for normal people, especially women.

The Neo-Nazi Enforcer Who Helped Build Peter Thiel’s Online Influence Empire – Byline Times: Our ruling class is fundamentally dangerous.

Uppies and Downies, the medieval football game that has no rules and no time limit - The Athletic: Sports are cool. And not entirely sane.

The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine | WIRED: Our ruling class is incredibly petty.

Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want | The Verge: Our ruling class has their heads up their own … marketing plans.

'Project Hail Mary' Is the Blueprint to Save Hollywood (and Our Future): Hopepunk for the win.

CDC Blocks Journal From Publishing Study Proving Covid Vaccine Worked | The New Republic: The Barbara Streisand Effect administration.

Ukraine’s Plan to Starve the Russian War Machine - The Atlantic: I wonder if wars are now going to be long term, attrition affairs due to drones.

You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze | The Verge: Imitative AI as a business can only exist if it is subsidized.

The AI Compute Crunch Is Here (and It's Affecting the Entire Economy): Very large subsidies.

How the Tech World Turned Evil | The New Republic: Our tech overlords are evil.

What Is Woke 2?: Very thoughtful piece on cultural change and its relationship to power.

Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder if They’re the Bad Guys | WIRED: Yes, you are the baddies.

Anthropic’s Claude Is Pumping Out Vulnerable Code, Cyber Experts Warn: it really feels as if we are about to enter a golden age, so to speak, of hacking and vulnerabilities.

The Justice Department Sides With the Ku Klux Klan | The New Republic: This administration is run on pure gutter racism.

Congress Has Become Almost Totally Irrelevant - The American Prospect: Presidential systems always seem to end up broken or in some form of authoritariansim.

BEWARE SOFTWARE BRAIN | The Verge: Excellent diagnosis of the fundamental problem with our ruling class.

Why BookScan Is Different from Book Sales (Which Are Different from Royalty Statements): It doesn’t see as of there are good public numbers about how many books have been sold.

Are NHL blood feuds a thing of the past? How the league’s evolution has tamed its playoffs - The Athletic: Fun look at how the NHL culture, as thus the culture at large, has changed over the last could of decades.

What I Learned About Billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s Private Retreat - The Atlantic: Billionaires are a society problem.

Have the best possible week everyone, and good luck to the L.A. Kings in avoiding elimination …. Nope. Can’t do it. I hope they go down. Sports fandom is a terrible, terrible thing.

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Counter Craft: Thoughtful writing about literature and its associated craft.

5AM StoryTalk: Writing and society from the perspective of a professional screen writer.

Dirtbags Through the Ages: Hilarious history. Probably the best history writer on the internet.

Blood in the Machine: Brian Merchant’s excellent look at technology. Buy his book, too.

Parker Malloy. Outstanding journalism.

Everything Is Horrible: Noah always makes me think about art and politics, even when I disagree with him.

Letters from an American: Measured, intelligent look at politics and the history that lead to those politics. Fascinating work.

Abortion, Every Day: Excellent reporting on abortion and health care. Every day.

The Downballot: Great look at the mechanics and numbers of elections at every level. Ridiculously comprehensive.

Off Message: The most intelligent look at Americna politics around.

Dan Davies: Thoughtful piece son how systems actually work. May sound boring, but it never is and it covers the ways and whys of how organizations work and impact our lives with a clarity not often seen.

Strength In Numbers: Data done right, with context and expertise given their proper value.

Men Yell At Me: Excellent reporting and commentary on politics and life and feminism.

Hope you enjoy and have the best possible week, everyone.

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My baby deer plushie told me that Mitski’s dad was a CIA operative | The Verge: This is really creepy.

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writers love technology, just not AI - by Lyta Gold: Another excellent essay by Lyta Gold.

The back story behind the first “$1.8 Billion” dollar “AI Company”: The NY Times fluffed a fraud.

Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? | The New Yorker: Altman should not be trusted, based on this.

Emotional Artemis crew name moon crater after commander’s late wife | News UK Video News | Sky News: Science will melt your heart.

The Illiteracy of the Trump Administration: Good look at the essential weakness of the Trump admin.

Intro | What football will look like in the future: A brilliant piece of writing where the form is as essential as the words.

How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran - The New York Times: This really does feel like Vance is throwing Trump under the bus.

Amid scandal, is MLB headed for an international draft? - ESPN: A sobering look at how MLB has abused international players, especially from the Caribbean.

School Discipline Is in Crisis. Trump Isn’t Helping | Washington Monthly: We made progress in school discipline and the Trump destroyed it.

Eternity in Their Hearts by K. J. Khan : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: Beautiful story.

Linus Ullmark opens up about trying season: ‘Fighting the demons every single day’ - The Athletic: It is good to see athletes talk about their mental health struggles.

What Happened After a Teacher Ditched Screens - The Atlantic: I want to talk more about this, but I feel good teachers will be moving more and more to an analog classroom, with some unintended consequences.

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real: AI’s one unambiguous use case is fraud and lying.

A viral Red Wings photo comes full circle 10 years later - The Athletic: Cute story, even if it does involve the Red Wings.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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The Human Skill That Eludes AI - The Atlantic: Imitative AI imitates. It does not create.

Person, Place, Thing by Marissa Lingen : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: Fun story.

A favorite NCAA Tournament pastime for players? Reading - The Athletic: The kids are all right.

Security Analysis of the Official White House iOS App | atomic.computer: What they found is incredibly distrubing.

Life (And Death) In Warframe: This story convinced me I am very old, but it is touching nonetheless.

That Knight’s a Fuckup (and I love him) - by Lyta Gold: Most interesting take on the new Game of thrones serious I have seen.

Opinion | Is It 1914 in America? - The New York Times: We are ruled by the worst people.

"CEO Said A Thing!" Journalism: The most accurate assessment of our tech and business media I have ever read.

YOU'RE ALL JUST JEALOUS OF MY JETPACK | My latest Guardian Books cartoon.: Heh.

What Memoir Scandals Tell Us about Two LLM Writing Scandals: A strong argument that authenticity matters.

How to Reclaim America From the Scammers and Frauds | The New Republic: We live in an age of scams, and the political party that becomes their scourge will own the next decade or two.

The Anti-Intellectualism of the Silicon Valley Elite | The Nation: Never trust people who do not read books.

Five questions for the guys who made a compass that points to the Times Square Olive Garden | The Verge: Finally, tech with no downsides.

Everest guides accused of poisoning foreign climbers to force fake rescues in $20m scam | The Independent: Absolutely insane story.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Woman Cured of Sickle Cell Disease and Lifelong Pain with New Treatment: Science will cure your disease.

Who’s Minnesota’s ‘Blanket Lady’? More than a superfan, she was a women’s basketball pioneer - The Athletic: Sports can be wholesome.

No officers will be disciplined after protesters falsely charged as gang members: These officers should be in jail.

Jessi Pierce will be remembered for the heart, humor and zest she had for the Wild — and life - The Athletic: Moving piece for their lost friend.

Confronting the CEO of the AI company that impersonated me | The Verge: They key to getting The Verge to take on tech CEOs to their faces is apparently to mess with their income potential.

Ghost in the Machine’s Valerie Veatch isn’t drinking the AI Kool-Aid | The Verge: Very disturbing information.

This Company Is Secretly Turning Your Zoom Meetings into AI Podcasts: AI is mostly about slop and extraction.

Meta misled users about its products’ safety, jury decides | The Verge: Now that Section 230 is no longer a blanket immunity, I suspect we will see many more of these verdicts.

Opinion | There’s a Reason Air Travel Is Such a Mess - The New York Times: We, as a nation, simply refuse to pay to keep our civilization.

Bombshell Jack Smith Report Reveals Why Trump Hoarded Classified Docs | The New Republic: Trump apparently stole the country’s most secret documents in order to make himself money.

Yankees’ Netflix debut is latest example of sports’ complicated TV landscape - The Athletic: Cable was so much better than streaming.

Ann Wolbert Burgess - by Erin C. Niumata - Erin’s Third Act: Fascinating bit of hidden history.

Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List - The New York Times: This admin is pure gutter racism.

Iran Is Winning the AI Slop Propaganda War: Interesting look at propaganda in the AI slop era.

AI companies try to pay staff in AI tokens, not money – Pivot to AI: Is this good? I’m not sure this is good.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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My fitness tracker is a secret weapon against my chronic illness | The Verge: Interesting look at how tech can be applied in unexpected but beneficial ways.

Emerging legislation would shield polluters from liability for climate change - Ars Technica: The GOP really hates your kids.

Does Generative AI “Work”? That’s a Misleading Question. | The New Republic: Interesting comparison between fossil fuels and imitative AI.

How To Read Sixteen Books at Once (At All Times) - Reactor: I cannot tell if this is genius or insanity.

Earth’s first major extinction was worse than we thought | Science | AAAS: Science will make you more extinct than you thought you were.

Ohio GOP Wants Every Pregnancy Reported to the State: The GOP really hates pregnant women.

Women are being abandoned by their partners on hiking trails. What’s behind ‘alpine divorce’? | Relationships | The Guardian: Not sure what is more infuriating: the men leaving behind people to suffer or the people making up a cutesy name for it.

Former NBPA Head Tamika Tremaglio Discusses The WNBA Labor Battle And The Art Of Bargaining | Defector: Fascinating for the ways in which the union has to fight to get the basics of the contract enforced.

ChatGPT did not cure a dog’s cancer | The Verge: It is more than a little sad that this has to be said out loud, but apparently it does.

Democrat Reveals Epstein File That Blows Huge Hole in Trump’s Story | The New Republic: I really didn’t think there was evidence against Trump in the files, assuming it would have leaked years ago. But, man, they really do act as if its hiding something terrible about him, don’t they.

Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie | The Verge: Brilliant diagnosis of the Tech Bro mindset.

Scientists Once Dropped Gophers on a Volcano. Now They’re Heroes.: Still don’t want them in my yard, though.

I was struggling to understand my autistic son - until we watched an episode of Doctor Who | Doctor Who | The Guardian: Lovely little story.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Procurement, Capacity and Soverignity - by Don Moynihan: Interesting argument.

The Cynical, Gullible American Man - The Atlantic: I do wonder if any kind of democracy can survive unregulated social media.

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis': With great difficulty, apparently. Important article.

Guess What Moderate Democratic Voters Aren’t Anymore? Moderate. | The New Republic: People really, really hate the status quo.

The Passengers a Norwegian Cruise Ship Left Behind: Avid cruise goers are the saddest cult imaginable.

The Submarine of Czechia: Or, The Life of a Spy at Mar-a-Lago • Buttondown: Excellent story.

“A spate of outages, including incidents tied to the use of AI coding tools”, right on schedule: The hype is going to break a lot of things.

Grammarly Is Facing a Class Action Lawsuit Over Its AI ‘Expert Review’ Feature | WIRED: Tech firms are convinced there will never be consequences.

Donald Trump, Oil Market Obliterator - The American Prospect: We are ruled by idiots.

I Watched 6 Hours of DOGE Bro Testimony. Here's What They Had to Say For Themselves: We are ruled by idiots, part two.

My Year as a Degenerate Sports Gambler - The Atlantic: Gambling should be illegal.

‘We’re in a downward spiral’: Inside the high-stakes battle to reform WorldTour cycling - The Athletic: Cycling likely requires stakeholders to give up some money, so its likely doomed.

Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part II: The Fremen Jihad – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Really fine article.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Post by @spikermonster.bsky.social — Bluesky: I had no idea this videos existed and now I love it.

How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance | The Verge: OpenAI is allowing the Trump administration ot use its tools to decide on targets and to spy on Americans.

The Fashionable Notion of 'Free Speech Culture' Is Justifying State Censorship, Ironically: Thoughtful look at how the free speech panic of the last ten years has worked to undermine real free speech.

Blackhawks player poll results: Connor Bedard’s chirps, Tyler Bertuzzi’s style and more roasting - The Athletic: Artyom Levshunov is a giant puppy dog and I love him for it.

The Mournful Ballad Of Punch The Monkey | Defector: Fascinating look at monkeys.

Deadline set for FIFA’s $7.8m World Cup row with Foxboro, games at risk as town stands firm - The Athletic: Good for the selectmen not bending to power and money.

‘Students can’t reason’: Teachers warn AI is fueling a crisis in kids’ ability to think | Fortune: If you love your kids, keep AI as far away from their education as possible.

Your 2026 Winter Paralympics Primer: The Olympics are not yet over!

What A Week Of Freedom Can Do For A Lab Mouse | Defector: It can change all of medical science, apparently.

Fireside Friday, March 6, 2026 – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Cannot imagine why I find this relevant.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian: Aside from the destruction of the tourism industry, which employees more people than, say, coal mining, the human cost is intolerable.

Post by @reasie.bsky.social — Bluesky: Facebook is like this because it is allowed to be an unregulated monopoly.

Child’s Play, by Sam Kriss: If you love your kids, you will keep them as far away form imitative AI is humanely possible.

Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web: This needs to be made illegal with life as the punishment.

How far back in time can you understand English?: This is extraordinarily cool.

A war foretold: how the CIA and MI6 got hold of Putin’s Ukraine plans and why nobody believed them | Ukraine | The Guardian: Interesting look at the run up to the invasion of Ukraine. A bit CIA-pilled, but fascinating nonetheless.

What Not Reading Does to Your Writing - by Lincoln Michel: TV is not the same as books, and you should not write as if they are.

beast lightin', go beast lightnin' - by Allison Epstein: I love these Dirtbag Through The Ages so much. Go subscribe, of you haven’t already.

The Case For Billionaire Realism - by Brian Beutler: Very good look at why billionaires must be dealt with.

Are Autonomous Vehicles Safer Than Human Drivers? We Don't Know Yet - Bloomberg: Nope. At least, not in any provable way.

DOJ removed, withheld Epstein files related to accusations about Trump : NPR: Trump certainly acts as if he did something horrible.

The Epstein Scandal Reveals the Dark Side of Bipartisanship | The New Republic: Long past time for our elites to be held accountable.

The GOP’s Nazi Problem - The Atlantic: The wealthy and the press in this country made it a scandal to be to the left of JFK while supporting fascists garnered merely a shrug. And now they wonder how we got here.

AIs can generate near-verbatim copies of novels from training data - Ars Technica: Imitative AI is a plagiarism machine.

DCCC Scores Massive Palantir and SpaceX Lobbyist Cash Haul: Sigh. we have so, so much work to do.

The Epstein class - by Rebecca Crosby and Noel Sims: Again, our elites need disciplining immediately.

Armed ICE officer in Portland called 911 during confrontation: ‘I’m going to have to shoot this kid’ - OPB: This loser had no compulsion about telling a dispatcher, as he is being recorded, that he as going to shoot a kid for following him on a bike. Abolish ICE is the compromise position.

Boston’s World Cup games hang in balance amid finger pointing over a missing $7.8m - The Athletic: Good for Foxboro.

Almost No One Needs College Algebra Anymore | Washington Monthly: A really interesting argument.

How America Chose Not to Hold the Powerful to Account - The Atlantic: Elite impunity has destroyed this country.

Collections: Warfare in Dune, Part I: Fighting Faufreluches – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: A fun look at how plausible Dune’s militaries actually are. More than I thought, it turns out.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Mogul skiers have shown speed and grace at Milan Cortina but what about their knees? - The Athletic: This looks both cool and like a full employment plan for knee-replacement surgeons.

‘A great wee place’: the small Scottish factory crafting Olympic curling stones | Curling | The Guardian: Craftspeople are cool.

The Trump admin argument that masks "are for officer safety reasons" is actually an admission: Good point.

Ranking the Olympic men’s hockey goal songs, from ‘Free Bird’ to pizza menus - The Athletic: We need more of this kind of hard-hitting journalism.

The Pepe Silvia Guide to ChatGPT Psychosis - by Lyta Gold: Chatbots should be banned.

Ford is focusing on efficiency to make its 2027 $30,000 EV pickup affordable - Ars Technica: Interesting look at how Ford is trying to make an affordable car.

The Quintessential Epstein Files Email - The American Prospect: Epstein survived, in part, I think, because he provided funding to attack the people the wealthy did not like.

‘Muppet Treasure Island’ at 30: Tim Curry on His Pirate Role - The New York Times: Tim Curry is the best.

Humans Used to Sleep Twice Each Night. Here's Why It Vanished. : ScienceAlert: Insomnia used to be normal, kinda?

A gate-crashing dog steals the show at the Olympics : NPR: All Olympic events should have dogs.

Opinion | How We Resist ICE: Car Pools - The New York Times: Moving story of real people standing up to the Administration’s child-kidnapping goons.

They Banned Woke And Suzy Still Can’t Read: Huh. Turns out putting anti-education twerps in charge of education doesn’t improve schools.

I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI - and it only took 20 minutes: It is disturbingly easy to get imitative AI to repeat lies.

ICE deports asylum seeker to Africa where abuser who bought her as ‘wife’ is waiting to kill her, lawyers claim | The Independent: ICE is deliberately trying to get immigrants killed.

finally we have created the silver bullet: Really interesting perspective on what imitative AI is likely to change in work.

Exclusive | OpenAI Employees Raised Alarms About Canada Shooting Suspect Months Ago - WSJ: OpenAI knew a shooter was possibly planning real violence and did nothing.

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) | The Guardian: ICE is just evil for the sake of being evil.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Opinion | The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way. - The New York Times: This is from a conservative economist.

Former ICE Facility Worker 'saw people laying in feces' at Baltimore Detention Center | wusa9.com: Abolish ICE and start prosecuting people.

Swansea man's surprise after finding abandoned Welsh village: Man stumbles into the start of a horror movie and we are all doomed.

You may not know these 3 Olympic men’s hockey players, but soon you just might - The Athletic: Olympics are awesome.

AI Doesn’t Reduce Work—It Intensifies It: Imitative AI is simply not good enough to justify its cost.

Which Other Olympic Mascots Could Italian Stoats Tina And Milo Slaughter In Cold Blood? | Defector: Defector always covers the most important stories.

Super Bowl runner-up rings: What NFL players really think - ESPN: I think this is kind of cool, actually.

At Winter Olympics, drone cameras are pushing limits for viewers — and athletes - The Athletic: And this are definitely cool.

No, bears don't actually hibernate | Popular Science: Everything we have ever been taught is a lie.

What Is Affordability? | Washington Monthly: Nice look at how people actually experience the economy.

Instead of Pandering, Democrats Should Try Changing Voters’ Minds | The New Republic: People’s minds can change.

I Have Seen Video Game Industry Hell, And Now You Must Also Gaze Upon It: Capitalism might have been a mistake.

Mogul skiers have shown speed and grace at Milan Cortina but what about their knees? - The Athletic: I still think most of these people’s knees are going ot fall off when they are 60.

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

Why MLB stars are being told they can’t play in the World Baseball Classic - The Athletic: Money ruins everything.

NHL arenas of yore: Here are some of the fun quirks and features we miss - The Athletic: I only managed to go once, but the Chicago Stadium was an amazing venue.

this ain't a queen, it's an arms race - by Allison Epstein: More dirtbags from history! Also, buy her book!

What a “Melania” Cinematographer Hoped to Accomplish | The New Yorker: “I can outthink Issac Chotiner” level arrogance should be a recognized mental illness.

A century of hair samples proves leaded gas ban worked - Ars Technica: The EPA has made us smarter. Literally.

How does someone get into Olympic skeleton? For Mystique Ro, it wasn’t love at first sled - The Athletic: Winter Olympic sports are all based on a drunken dare and I do so love them for it.

ICE tear gasses children in Portland | The Verge: What braze, strong men defending us from kids in little, pink sweaters.

How Not to Defeat Authoritarianism - Boston Review: thoughtful look at how ot rise to the occasion.

The Real Cause of Grade Inflation | Washington Monthly: Convincing argument. Always did think all classes should just be pass/fail.

Why Literature Needs a Punk Rock Mindset: Just what the man said.

Opinion | This Is Just Who Trump Is - The New York Times: Truth.

Opinion | The Finance Industry Is a Grift. Let’s Start Treating It That Way. - The New York Times: You know things have gone sideways when a conservative economists is like “yeah, fsck finance and private equity”

Have the best possible week, everyone.

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Quick question: I list these as I encountered them rather than in categories. That is deliberate, an attempt to mimic the same serendipity that brought them into my life. Would you prefer categories or the more random experience you get today?

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

How to Film ICE | WIRED: Advice for those who might need it.

OpenAI's Marketing Efforts Are Embarrassingly Ineffective, New Consumer Research Finds: So did ChatGPT write their terrible new ads?

We Begin Where Infinity Ends by Somto Ihezue : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: A wonderful little story about fireflies, friends, and changing.

The corporate enablers of the ICE crackdown - by Judd Legum: A list of people we should avoid giving money to.

Trump DOT Plans to Use Google Gemini AI to Write Regulations — ProPublica: This is going ot get people hurt. The lack of concern expressed by the Administration in this article for the problems this can bring is chilling.

Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong - The Atlantic: People are generally not nasty and brutish. People are generally decent and helpful.

He Leaked the Secrets of a Southeast Asian Scam Compound. Then He Had to Get Out Alive | WIRED: An amazing, heartbreaking, exciting story.

How the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program works, from consultation to treatment to release - The Athletic: Interesting look at how the league tries ot help players. This kind of thing should be society wide.

I grew up with Alex Pretti | The Verge: Heartbreaking reminders that the people in the news, even the heroes, are people first.

How a high school English teacher banned AI from her classroom : NPR: You cannot use AI if you do not understand what the output is supposed to be, therefor, using AI in schools inevitably leads to dumber kids since they haven’t learned enough to know when AI is lying.

The Myth Of Cops Overdosing From Touching Fentanyl Persists For A Reason | Defector: Panic attacks, as terrifying as they may be, are not overdoses.

After Charles Tillman transformed football, he joined the FBI. Then the immigration raids started - The Athletic: A man named Peanut has more courage than most.

The Means-Testing Industrial Complex - by Luke Farrell: “Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people.” Pure evil.

xkcd: mRNA Vaccine: best explanation of how these work I have ever seen.

"You have to use it. You have to trust it.": Forced Adoption of AI is The Subtext of Davos: Interesting take on what the bubble is driving.

ICE Pretends It’s a Military Force. Its Tactics Would Get Real Soldiers Killed | WIRED: Accurate.

Parenting in ICE-occupied Minneapolis | The Verge: This is the world MAGA wants.

How often do AI chatbots lead users down a harmful path? - Ars Technica: Quite a bit, it seems.

How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills \ Anthropic: This warning comes form one of the premier coding model makers, so the reality might be even worse.

Collections: The Late Bronze Age Collapse, A Very Brief Introduction – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Another fascinating overview by Dr. Devereaux. The internet is largely a mistake, but it does allow us all to take classes from a great teacher.

Melania review – Trump film is a gilded trash remake of The Zone of Interest | Melania | The Guardian: There is nothing quite like a viciously honest review.

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Stand With Minnesota Donation Directory: A comprehensive list of vetted organizations that are helping people withstand the siege of Minnesota. Any amount helps, and there are organizations helping in almost every way.

In My Country by Thomas Ha : Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy: Disturbingly topical story.

Archaeologists find a supersized medieval shipwreck in Denmark - Ars Technica: Science will find you the big ass boats.

the real tin thing - by BDM - Notebook: A moving tribute to a teacher.

Driverless cars promise a revolution. But can they handle the British weather?: Probably not.

Your Guide To Bluesky, The Official App of Sports: Bluesky really does have the sense of community that Twitter used to around sporting events.

Dr. Gladys West, Mathematician Whose Work Made GPS Possible, Dies at 95: An amazing woman and one of the people who made it possible for you to never get lost.

Behind the disturbing image of ICE snatching a half-naked, elderly Hmong American from his home: Well reported story on the kind of abuse ICE puts even citizens through. Ms. Kabas is well worth the price of a subscription.

boulder and wiser - by Allison Epstein: Another great dirtbag story from the funniest historian on the internet. Another subscription well worth your money.

NeurIPS research papers contained 100+ AI-hallucinated citations, new report claims | Fortune: Is flooding scientific papers with bullshit helping science? Cause it really doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.

Are 'Jeopardy!' Contestants Really That Bad At Questions About Sports? | Defector: They aren’t, but the real fun in this article is the look at how Jeopardy structures its question list.

Silk Roads and So. Many. Mountains. | Patreon: Interesting look at how historical maps are drawn.

Elon Musk’s Grok A.I. Chatbot Made Millions of Sexualized Images, New Estimates Show - The New York Times: X is a non-consensual and child porn creation platform at this point and any decent society would have already arrested the people, including Musk, responsible.

Rollback Racket | Washington Monthly: Hey, despite what conservative lawyers want you to believe, it turns out monopolies are bad for consumers! Who knew?

Turns out David Brooks didn’t really mean any of it: The rot in our elite runs deep.

America Needs Greenland. No—Iceland. Actually, Never Mind! - The Atlantic: Alexandra Petri is a national treasure.

The scientific case for ping-pong: Why athletes — and you — should play more table tennis - The Athletic: Science will get you to play a game.

The extraordinary story of a soccer coach, a kidnapping and a Saudi job that didn’t exist - The Athletic: Amazing story.

Kash Patel’s FBI Is Making America Less Safe, Current and Former Employees Say - The New York Times: Actual FBI agents detail just how much damage Kash Patel and Donald Trump are doing to your safety.

The Five Farcical Principles of the ‘CBS Evening News’ - The Ringer: Unsurprisingly, the principles are empty nonsense.

AI bot swarms threaten to undermine democracy: This seems bad.

Michael Connelly Should Stick To Fake Crime | Defector: I dislike true crime in part because of stories like this.

We Must Establish The Run Against Authoritarianism: Good advice for these terrible times.

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Blue Cross Defrauded Breast Cancer Center, Must Pay $421M, Jury Finds — ProPublica: Private health insurance is a scam.

Why Vance Committed So Hard to the Minneapolis Shooter - The Atlantic: Vance has no morals.

[2601.02671] Extracting books from production language models: LLM based AIs are plagarism machines.

NFL wild-card playoffs: What went wrong for five losing teams? - ESPN: ESPN is generally a shadow of its past self, but Barnwell, Mina Kimes and Dominique Foxworth are the best football analysts around.

How to build a radically truthful news outlet: The standards we should be holding all news orgnizations to.

The Tiger Is Paper - by Brian Beutler - Off Message: Excellent analysis.

Roblox’s AI-Powered Age Verification Is a Complete Mess | WIRED: I suspect Roblox is fine with this as they make a ton of money off kids.

Does Congress Even Want Power Anymore? | The New Republic: Our Constitution is broken.

Cop Used Flock to Wrongfully Accuse a Woman Then Refused to Look at Evidence That Exonerated Her, Body Camera Shows: Policing is completely broken in this country.

The Liam Coen-Lynn Jones moment, the backlash and why journalism is still worth defending - The Athletic: Important defense of journalism

Joiner and Rust - Reactor: Sweet story.

Do I Like It? Reflecting on Divergent After 15 Years: Fascinating look by an author of a successful, but critically mixed at best, series of books on those books now that time has passed.

Resisting AI Mania in Schools - Rethinking Schools: AI requires people who understand things to be even remotely useful, but if you don’t train people without AI, they don’t learn and therefor cannot make AI even remotely useful.

More Paul - by Lindsey Adler - Critical Thinking: Thoughtful look at Paul McCartney’s legacy.

Could a Simple Nasal Drop Treat the Deadliest Brain Cancer?: Science will save your life in new and interesting ways.

Bots All the Way Down - Lightspeed Magazine: Our future is terrible and amazing.

Renfrew Christie Dies at 76; Sabotaged Racist Regime’s Nuclear Program - The New York Times: There need to be sttues to this man.

How Polymarket and Kalshi Have Taken Over the World - The Ringer: Gambling is destorying this country.

Trump-Administration Officials Describe an Elementary-School Drop-Off - The Atlantic: Where is the satire?

Ciji Graham Died Unable to Get Heart Care or an Abortion in North Carolina — ProPublica: Abortion is healthcare, and if you don’t get healthcare, you can die.

David Nozzolillo's wild night as an EBUG for the Chicago Blackhawks - ESPN: EBUGs are the greatest rule in sports.

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We Are the Bad Guys - by Hamilton Nolan - How Things Work: Truth.

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time: Science will save your life.

The $30 Billion Identity Theft of Venezuela - The American Prospect: Capitalists will ruin your country.

Opinion | There Is a Sickness Eating Away at American Democracy - The New York Times: The lack of elite accountability is killing our country.

apocalypse thou - by Allison Epstein: Yeah! New Dirtbag Through the Ages!

Who’s who at X, the deepfake porn site formerly known as Twitter: the Financial Times, God bless them, chose violence. And truth.

Pardon my coup - by G. Elliott Morris - Strength In Numbers: Never forget what they did and what they excuse.

The hell of being a ‘Kavanaugh stop’ victim: Kavanaugh belongs with Taney in the annals of infamy.

Dell's CES 2026 chat was the most pleasingly un-AI briefing I've had in maybe 5 years | PC Gamer: Dell understands that they should be selling computers with features people want, not features that get in people’s way.

The nation’s strictest privacy law just took effect, to data brokers’ chagrin - Ars Technica: Data brokers should be illegal, but this is the bare minimum we should expect nationwide.

Snatching Maduro was all about the spectacle | The Verge: We have an admin run by internet poisoned children.

Justin McDaniel Found a Way to Make Students Read Again: A story about the most Divorced Man in history.

I Tried to Be the Government. It Did Not Go Well. - The Atlantic: Weakening the government means making your life harder and less safe.

In Defense of Pretexts - by Brian Beutler - Off Message: Not sure I agree, but it is thought provoking.

Reality still matters in Minneapolis | The Verge: When we get through this, we need to erect statues to the observers and protestors.

The One Simple Thing That Makes the U.S. Economy Unmanageable: So much of our economy is broken, but fixing this would help.

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The Brazen Illegality of Trump’s Venezuela Operation | The New Yorker: It is not unprecedented, but it is different and it is worse.

‘Painful to hear!’ How podcasts’ rush to video is turning them into dreadful listens | Podcasts | The Guardian: First world problem, but this is annoying.

Rejoice! Carmakers Are Embracing Physical Buttons Again | WIRED: This is good news for safety.

The NYT Recruiting Brochure for New College: The NY Times cannot handle right wing misinformation.

My Open Letter To That Open Letter About AI In Writing And Publishing – Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds: Chuck Wendig and his cats that never existed would like to discuss the usefulness of AI.

Alzheimer's Fully Reversed in Mice, Scientists Say: Science is awesome.

Medical breakthroughs in 2025 - by Saloni Dattani: Science found many ways to make you healthy.

Robot Coffee Cups? Self-Driving Trivets? AI Researchers Made It Happen - CNET: Maybe we really are out of ideas.

College football bowl games remind us of the joy of having fun, going home, and moving on - The Athletic: Bowl games are fun, and sports are supposed ot be about fun.

PodCastle 611: Yo, Rapunzel! - PodCastle: Cute story.

New Acquisitions: Tolkien and Éowyn Between Two Wars (PPP Moot Keynote) – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry: Thoughtful read on Tolkien and the different ways in which he understood war.

Have the best possible week, everyone.