“The President sent his lawyer to negotiate a settlement with a convicted sex trafficker to provide cushy accommodation in exchange for her silence on his participation in said sex trafficking” is a cold description of the facts of an insane story that the media doesn’t find worthy of scrutiny

Did a new one

“Fuck AI” — Guillermo del Toro 🎥 Vanity Fair

there’s this weird idea a lot of people seem to have about how all of us writers and artists must secretly want to use AI and are merely resisting temptation for ethical reasons, and like, no, it’s not hard for me to resist drinking the bowl of Piss With Glass In It actually

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

Not for me, "AI" aimed at consumers has very little offer anyone who actually does at a professional level the creative things it mimics. I write better than an LLM, an artist does better art than an image generator, a musician makes better music than an "AI" music tool.

Sesame Street will be putting a huge collection of episodes on YouTube starting in January 2026 This is a fantastic way to educate children It’s a form of resistance. Shows like Sesame Street teach love, tolerance, acceptance & more. These lessons are crucial for the long fight ahead.

From the 2020 archive! "National Parks of the United States of America Map" by @shawnielsen.bsky.social 🙌 Portfolio: hireillo.com/c81 #Art #Illustration #TBT #ThrowbackThursday

And on the subject of #realartatters: AI poisoning tool NIGHTSHADE is now free for artists to use: venturebeat.com/ai/nightshad...

So apparently, it may turn out that The Wizard of Oz at the Las Vegas Sphere wasn’t entirely made in AI and Google threw the VFX crew under the bus by claiming it was all done by artificial intelligence. If true, then fucking yikes.

Norman Rockwell was actually a progressive and challenging artist and his reputation for nostalgic schlock was undeserved.

my new ai device will sit in a beer garden that backs onto a small river and drink three to five pints on a sunny late summer afternoon for you, leaving you free for more meetings and business calls

I do firmly believe that refusing to outsource your basic cognitive functions to LLMs right now - as so many are stumbling over themselves to do right now, like hogs trotting to a pile of slop that’s been set up inside of a butcher’s delivery truck - will very much pay off in a few years.

New stamps dropped to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Postal Service & artist Chris Ware (Reader, NewCity, Jimmy Corrigan etc) designed one of the commemorative stamp sets! blockclubchicago.org/2025/07/22/u... (also hey, the USPS still exists, at this moment anyway, so that's something)

wrote about my family’s nemesis www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

An ai cover on your magazine about writing is pretty disappointing.

Rian Dundon, a photographer based in Portland, went down to L.A. to provide a portrait of life in a city that is partially under occupation by ICE. His photos reveal heartbreak and fear but also the city's culture and fighting spirit. Great photo essay at the link. prospect.org/culture/2025...

I just received a contract on Docusign for review and signing, and it offered to give me an AI-generated summary that I could read instead to save time. That's AN AI-GENERATED SUMMARY ***OF A CONTRACT***, in case you need to let that sink in.

No matter how small your contribution to taking care of our environment, whether turning off an unused light or recycling a paper cup, it's all important. We only have one planet! Happy Earth Day 2025! 💚 #EarthDay Artwork by Shaw Nielsen