What an insane situation. Layers of unreality.

No son, they are not "magically delicious." The workers made them delicious. This is a slogan meant to mystify the social conditions of labor

From the NY Post. You know they are really scrambling when they are running "The gun was no angel" stories.

Ragú Unveils Sensory Deprivation Marinara Tank. “The detoxifying marinara is slowly simmered to the exact temperature of the user’s body, allowing the mind to drift freely into a meditative gravy state, just like Nonna used to make.” [theonion.com]

“At Texas A&M, internal emails show staff are using AI software to search syllabi and course descriptions for words that could raise concerns under new system policies restricting how faculty teach about race and gender.” www.texastribune.org/2025/12/15/t...

To live in the country with more resources than any nation in history, that refuses to solve problems that are both solveable and crushing, is very hard to take.

Stealworkers

All I want today is to watch Ravens Steelers from KC. I subscribe to 4 different streaming services that show NFL games, 2 of which are showing *this specific game* and I can't watch it bc it's "out of market." WTF is "out of market" on a streaming service?? I'm so tired of this shit.

I'm delighted to be included in this NPR Sunday Story. They do a nice job weaving in several perspectives, and the hosts keep the whole thing engaging and conversational.

On the left, the refurbished Lincoln bathroom. On the right, picture I took in Saddam Hussein's palace in Basra in 2005.

15 million Americans are going to lose their health care.

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

OpenAI's VP for education recently said the company wanted to become "core infrastructure" for schools and universities. Any infrastructure, though, always depends on habituating users to its technical affordances - so I've been trying to track how it's doing that 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/t...

"We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically." www.ru.nl/en/research/...

"...[H]ikers use artificial intelligence to help them discover a route, only to discover that the trail is not safe. 'Since about one year ago, many people have begun to think everything on ChatGPT is correct...[i]t is not a tool for mountain advice, for routes, or for planning.'"

The whole “Epstein list” fiasco being the thing that finally alienates a bunch of hardcore MAGAs is pretty interesting from a media literacy perspective. The “not new” thing it shows is that you can do all kinds of horrible things out in the open without losing supporters...

As @emilymbender.bsky.social & @alexhanna.bsky.social write in The AI Con: "Troll the hell out of them...The more we can pierce the cultural bubble that Sam Altman and his kind live in, the better we can upset the idea that the encroaching of these systems is...inevitable." So repeat: "Bro, what."

refreshing to find out that some bombs are too unseemly to drop

A plea to fellow teachers.

It feels very bad and cynical to always be thinking, “I wonder what this is meant to distract us from,” rather than just absorbing the weight of what’s happening, but here we are.

America is one of those countries where if you host a global sporting event, inclusive messages have to be censored to so as not to anger the central government. In this case the message is “racism is bad” www.nytimes.com/athletic/643...

One thing that's been striking to me at the Tesla Takedown protests in San Francisco is the first-timers, which is a great sign of growing resistance..... Read this thread, if you're not too busy getting ready for #NOKINGS today.

Imagine seeing an immigration raid in your city and thinking, “This is fine.” After watching this administration admit it mistakenly sent a man to a Salvadoran maximum security prison then fight tooth and nail to leave him there.

RIP to the great Sly Stone. A monumental loss. His PR just sent this out.

AI is incapable of solving env injustice and env racism because AI is causing env injustice and env racism.

Young people sue Donald Trump over climate change

very cool that for ten years people at the heights of political commentary insisted to the point of rage that the paramount threat to free speech was “censorious” college students

So when are we going to retire "half-dollar sized hail" as a prediction? Pretty sure no one under 60 can picture that.

“This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public…”

This week, the GOP slid an amendment into the budget reconciliation process that would ban US states from enacting laws that govern AI. This of course was not an aberration—it’s the direct result of Silicon Valley lobbying efforts, and big tech’s union with Trump and the Republican Party.

I am a climate scientist and this is correct ⬇️

Here in Kansas City my kid is on his FOURTH consecutive snow day. Great for midday snowball battles but a disaster for spring class prep 🥶🥶🥶

In conversations about AI and education, "access" gets narrowly framed as "access to technology." But AI everywhere deprives students of a different kind of access: access to their own voices. aiminimalist.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/r...

Wrote up a short list of my favorite articles on AI & teaching from my fall '24 sabbatical aiminimalist.wordpress.com/2024/12/20/t...