He is history truth bombing the train!

Ok, we are now getting REAL SALEM MA TALK from the conductor on @mbta_cr. “DO YOU KNOW WHERE MOST OF THAT HISTORY ACTUALLY HAPPENED? DAAAAAANVERS!” HAVE A GOOD TIME IN SALEM!”

RIP Jane Goodall. Nominative determinism at its best. She was a truly good human being. people.com/jane-goodall...

This clip highlights the degree to which much of business-speak is avoidance of the conflict associated with making a decision. LLMs are a mirror, it’s just our output in a probabilistic blender. bsky.app/profile/boot...

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

This NY Magazine article on the AI boom in SF is gonzo in the best way. nymag.com/intelligence...

Published a Friday Fragments on cheap art: how to make it, how to buy it, where to get it in Boston imminently (art fair + open studios). open.substack.com/pub/elements...

IT'S OFFICIAL: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City have formed the Northeast Public Health Collaborative. The collaborative will issue their own vaccine recommendations and coordinate public health efforts.

Mimi Pond has finally finished her graphic novel about the Mitford sisters. It took her six years. (If you don't know who Pond is, you're in for a treat, and after you read the article, you should watch Beauty is Embarrassing). www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...

I woke up my erstwhile newsletter, you might enjoy it. (I'm also considering alternate platforms to Substack, for reasons.) substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Josh Kraft has dropped out of the Boston mayor's race. His exit is an abrupt shift for a candidate who spent $5.5 million of his own money on the campaign.

settings > content & media > autoplay video & gifs = off

*Kermit arms* www.universalhub.com/2025/great-s...

Welp, together with councilor Murphy’s poor performance at the Mass and Cass hearing, there no way she is getting my vote ever again. (There needs to be more readily accessible info about councilors.) bsky.app/profile/fort...

MA dems removed almost all of the language on trans rights from their platform. all of this from the 2021 platform was stripped

Desired killer use case for GenAI: "I can vibe code an architecturally perfect, scalable, beautiful product minus expensive designers or engineers!" Actual killer use case for GenAI: "I can pull a transcript from a podcast and have Claude summarize it at the desired level of detail in 5 minutes."

I sadly did not go to the epic Boston NiN show (I have seen NiN before, they were great), but I am here to tell you that their performance of “Head Like a Hole” hit incredibly hard, per multiple videos from friends, possibly because the lyrics are suddenly -extremely- relevant?

New Mexico has issued a public health order that removes federal restrictions to COVID-19 vaccine access so that pharmacies in New Mexico can vaccinate people of all ages and risk profiles. Every state need to do this!

This is marketing 101. I wish the Dems would take it in. bsky.app/profile/khan...

LLMs are like bench saws. You should need training to interact with them, use them only for a specific work-related purpose, and not play around with them or allow kids to play with them.

An M.I.T. study found that 95% of companies that had invested in A.I. tools were seeing zero return. It jibes with the emerging idea that generative A.I., “in its current incarnation, simply isn’t all it’s been cracked up to be,” johncassidysays.bsky.social writes.

I highly recommend the book "What To Expect When You're Expecting Robots" if you're looking for an approachable but sophisticated foundation in robotics (which is what Waymos are) This book is close to the top of my "teach it in schools" list news.mit.edu/2020/expect-...

Market crashes historically occur in the autumn. All signs point to our economy riding the declining side of an AI bubble. I'm not a finance expert by any means, but you might want to consider rebalancing your portfolio.

Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.

Dolly Parton currently sends a new book to 2.2 million children every month. The number has steadily increased for years. It's in honor of her parents, who were illiterate. She works with hospitals. Many people have told us they had no idea the books would come. They are addressed to the child.

this is why you cannot actually trust an LLM to do math (which MANY people are not aware of):

This is the single best piece I've read on "replacing coders with AI," it fully dispells the myth from the perspective of a software engineer and does so in a calm, reasonable way. colton.dev/blog/curing-...

We can’t treat our supporters like shit. No amount of money is worth the hit to the relationship.

So the massive amount of spam that left-leaning Americans get from (supposedly) Democrats? Apparently, it's all one firm--Mothership Strategies--and they're self-dealing. data4democracy.substack.com/p/the-mother...

A scientist who was working in California’s Half Moon Bay yesterday sent this video showing an otherwise imperceptible indicator of the tsunami: pelicans being pulled backwards away from shore.

The classic truth about effective marketing is that it’s better to be specific than all things to all people. Budgets are finite; the goal should be to spin a specific narrative that people flock to identify with. For example. bsky.app/profile/angu...

Normalize talking about fed. $ when these headlines happen. Thousands of scientists, working for decades funded by the federal government did this. At times, people thought this was useless research. Below is some info about the HIV labs at the University of Utah. 🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

RIP Ozzy Osbourne, a man who needed a rhyme for "masses" and decided, "right, just going to use 'masses' again.” A legend (sincerely).

Congratulations, @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social!! Thank you for running an inspiring campaign focused on making real change for working people & families. And huge props to @bradlander.bsky.social for being a true leader, fighter & coalition-builder 🙌

ChatGPT as "automated gaslighting by an invisible best friend" does seem like a psychosis starter kit. bsky.app/profile/denn...

Excellent, succinct case study, which should be required reading for any Democratic campaign org. bsky.app/profile/espi...

Your beginning-of-summer PSA: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning. “There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.” So here’s what to look for… [slate.com]

There are solid use cases for AI. This is not one of them. Five (FIVE) rounds of interviews, all conducted by an AI bot? Feels like someone upstream has a big investment in AI products. www.nbcsportsboston.com/mlb/boston-r...

MA put in a millionaires tax 2 years ago, and the GOP said we'd miss revenue targets & millionaires would flee. MA collected TWICE the projected revenues, and the number of millionaires went UP 40% www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

It matters that queer people are enabled to be their whole selves, and it’s important and right that there’s an entire month saying so, every year. Beautiful job, Boston. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/14/m...

Update: We've removed the paywall for all ye who enter.

"TikTok is 100% vaudeville" is a thing I said in class today, if you were wondering whether I am actually the guy that I appear to be.

Tear gas can cause long-term health consequences by making people more susceptible to contracting respiratory illnesses, including COVID. The chemical agent can also hurt people inside their homes if it seeps into residential neighborhoods. What you need to know (published 2020):

I already left a comment against reducing accessibility requirements in new buildings Please do the same 3 minutes of your time to document your support for equity and inclusion

RIP. highly recommend ?uestlove’s documentary on sly stone if you haven’t seen it www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

@dartadams.bsky.social in the screenshot of the year. Great parting words, as well.

Mayor Wu is now LIVE with Dart Adams...

Women’s professional soccer belongs here in Boston. Introducing our club crest 💚

PRIDE MONTH DOUBLE RAINBOW IN CHICAGO HOLY SHIT