Introducing a new American Doll. This is Aimee from New Orleans and her dear Papa just died of Malaria. (Mourning dolls were an actual thing.)

This piece argues we’re in not one, but three AI bubbles: 1. a financial bubble with inflated valuations, 2. an infrastructure bubble with overbuilt data centers, 3. a hype bubble where AI can’t meet its promises. Honestly, all three seem highly likely to me.

"Gun deaths are more likely in small towns than big cities."

Know joy! youtu.be/sFFcuy_5k2Q?...

How is it that restaurant designers seem not to know that women have purses? And that we'd like to hang said purses on the back of the chair instead of putting them on the floor. How is this possibly news to them?

In hindsight, perhaps we should have done more to intervene when Zuck incited a genocide in Southeast Asia.

Exactly this

I hear Disney is remaking Star Wars except Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers are the good guys.

Excited to share my interview w/ @faineg.bsky.social on Techtonic - discussing AI chatbots, Joseph Weizenbaum's warning from 50 years ago, and why you can't trust Apple. Full episode: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

This is the first time we estimate he has a negative approval rating among Texas voters: www.economist.com/interactive/...

Listening to @faineg.bsky.social rn on @wfmu.bsky.social w/ @markhurst.bsky.social, talking abt ELIZA!

Update: Civil War cancelled due to shooter being demographically uncooperative

The thread as a shareable webpage: https://skywriter.blue/pages/did:plc:dgnvlsiinly3i2waxoltdbyl/post/3lynns5iuu22f.

Just woke up from a social media pause and the first thing I see is an incredible footage of a sperm whale casually cruising with a giant squid in its mouth ?? 🦑 🌊 🌿

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

A comment by someone in my travel group about how glad they were not to have to eat rice with every meal since they left Asia made me realize how lucky I am to have 3 home cooking cuisines Western, Korean, and Chinese.

I went to Bass Pro Shop to elevate my fishing attire but all they had was rubber waders. Lame.

womp womp.

On this day in 1907, the Anti-Asian Riots began in Vancouver. Led by the Asiatic Exclusion League, and fueled by anti-immigration sentiment, rioters attacked Chinese and Japanese neighbourhoods. Learn more 👇 canadaehx.com/2023/07/18/a...

What do the virtual pet games of my childhood have to do with the ethics of being mean to LLM chatbots? Arguably, a lot, as I explore in my latest piece on cute virtual dogs, AI-powered waifus, and campaigns against (digital) animal abuse:

Just the phrase "anti-wind group" boggles my mind.

Difference btwn West Coast highway driving and East Coast. Out East it’s nothing but trees; no vistas, no mountains just trees, trees, and more trees.

have differences in preferred tax policy? we can be friends housing policy? friends in how to run certain foreign outreach programs, federal research grant priorities, $ to invest in CISA, new F-47 buy and worthiness? we can be friends Think I belong in a camp? Not friends this is not hard

National Guardsmen now stationed outside our DC building confirmed that the only thing they can do if they witness a crime is call 911. The have no more authority than my office mate to intervene. Despite the handcuffs, they can't make arrests. They are very expensive mall cops.

I bought this fabulous pin at an antique store recently and looked up the designer. Besides discovering Lucille Ball she also received the Congressional Medal of Freedom for designing the WAC uniform which was in use for women's U.S. Army uniforms through 1968.

My superpower is my ability to completely tune but football but occasionally I like to look up and yell “flee” at whoever has the ball just to enter into the spirit of the thing. Inexplicably this is not appreciated.

Guesses as to what the yes and no buttons are for? I had to ask.

Just saw someone refer to Cheryl Hines as The Marvelous Mrs. Measles and 💀💀💀💀💀💀

I’m married to a “I know a guy” guy. It has its ups and downs but mostly ups. @smokedaddy.bsky.social

Pay attention, Canada. If Alberta is successful in this book banning, this will spread. Look around you, b/c this is how it starts. We're on the same ledge the US was on. And we either start fighting this right-wing rise now, or we follow the Americans over the edge. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

NUTSO NANCY MACE, A WEIRD PANTY-SNIFFER WHO "NO ONE" LIKES, HAD TO CANCEL A RALLY WHEN ONLY EIGHT PEOPLE SHOWED UP (SAD! BUT HILARIOUS!). MANY ARE SAYING THANK YOU JEFF TIEDRICH (ME, YOUR FAVORITE WRITER!) FOR MY ATTENTION TO WRITING ABOUT THIS MATTER IN THE POST WHO'S LINK IS HERE: bit.ly/4fQ5Tvn

Anyone heard or use the very Southern term, “Sinking spell” to describe temporary lassitude or ennui?

The solution to that is just to talk more about Pritzker. Every leftist I follow has 50 Newsom posts for every 1 Pritzker post. Be the change you wanna see

meanwhile at the sandwich crimes unit

Looking for a new profession? Elevator maintenance and repair is up and coming based on the number of out of service elevators we have encountered on our cross-country trip. New ones, old ones, elevators don’t want to elevate.

NYC doing its thing.

Do you have burning questions about drone technology - such as "can I shoot a drone if it's bothering me"? I answer at least some of those questions in my new FAQ on drones, which I'll be uploading periodically: little-flying-robots.ghost.io/i-answer-som...

this article exists because i realized it would be far easier and less eye-twitch inducing for me to just link to this article whenever someone asks me, for the thousandth time, if it's legal or a good idea to shoot at drones, jam them, or attack them with eagles

If pundits would like to talk about violence, a terrorist recently shot up the CDC and another assassinated Democratic officials in Minnesota but they sort of let both stories disappear Not as threatening as motorbikes in DC I know but maybe we could circle back?

@faineg.bsky.social As someone who I know cares about such things, maybe you could help spread the word about this on bsky? www.votervoice.net/EXCHANGE/Cam...

#Putin getting the welcome he deserves in #Anchorage #Alaska this afternoon.

Now at Subway, the 12-inch Icebreaker

Our robot overlords are a work in progress and I’m ok with that.

Unintended consequences

Things I don’t know until I visited the Truman Library, Harry was a “style tend setter” on his visits to Key West. Look at this fabulousness.

another way in which LLMs make me feel like an alien as compared to their many fans: I find their default fawning conversational tone to be intensely, viscerally repulsive and suspicious.