Wild that #Friends premiered 30 years ago today. DYK @cmu.edu alum literally created the magic we're all still obsessed with? Burton Morris (CFA '86) painted those coffee cups in Central Perk. John Shaffner (CFA ‘76) & Joe Stewart (CFA ‘77) designed Monica's apartment. cmu.is/room-to-imagine

🎉 HAPPY 43rd bday to the emoticon! Before 😀 there was :-) In 1982, Prof. Scott Fahlman created the sideways smiley to help distinguish jokes from serious posts on message boards. This became the foundation for today's billion-dollar emoji industry! Visit the #CMU125 exhibit: cmu.is/room-to-imagine

ON THIS DAY in 2009, Google acquired reCAPTCHA! Ever wonder why you prove you're human online? @cmu.edu Prof Manuel Blum & grad student Luis von Ahn (SCS 2005) created CAPTCHA—those squiggly letters distinguishing humans from bots. 🤖👩‍💻 Celebrate 125 years of CMU history here: cmu.is/room-to-imagine

Stamps.com has entered the chat...

From the IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT CONTROL files.... Corporate America is silent as Trump abandons free-market principles | CNN Business www.cnn.com/2025/08/20/b...

I will die on this hill: play-by-play chatter between pitches in baseball is the best when they are just random talking about the crowd. (Currently listening to announcers debating whose Ditka mustache is real, and whose is glued on during the Cubs game.)

I love learning how people are using AI to streamline their work processses and operations. Drop a comment below and tell me how you are using AI. It only needs to be world changing for you 👏 This is my latest little discovery (over on LinkedIn): www.linkedin.com/posts/thebra...

Jon Stewart did a whole ass "fire me, too" monologue last night and I'm here for it.

Head of FEMA Urban Search and Rescue branch resigns. He told colleagues that TX delay was tipping point after months of admin efforts to dismantle the agency. DHS Sec Noem took 72 hours after TX flooding to authorize the deployment of FEMA’s search and rescue network www.cnn.com/2025/07/21/p...

When I was little, the U.S. military came to our home at gunpoint and took me and my family away. We were imprisoned for years in barbed wire camps simply because we were Japanese American. I have spent my life telling that story, hoping it would never be repeated.

My partner and I have this conversation in terms of marriage. She's most definitely not changing her name and we have ordered all our documents (birth certificate, SS card, passport) and keep them locked up in a fireproof carry case.

Superman is the Avengers of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Lots of Joss Whedon out-of-the-blue knock abouts mid speech and a few Loki smashed by Hulk moments. And full Gunn soundtrack and "lovable doof" moments. Lex and Mr. Terrific are the actual stars.

Fence fight: CMU orders students' anti-Trump message painted over ahead of president's visit triblive.com/local/fence-...

The Carnegie Mellon University student fence is a place where students have long exercised their freedom of speech: www.cmu.edu/stugov/fence.... Today, you might want to follow its IG account: www.instagram.com/cmufence/p/D...

I'm annoyed because I paired my Garmin watch with a sleep app. I've been following its advice and have much more energy. It also very accurately lets me know when energy crashes are coming. We are all just Meat Puppet Robots.

I encourage everyone to read this letter. Please then realize the president is imposing a tax on American consumers to leverage a foreign nation into making a domestic political decision that will help one of his political allies.

ALL CAPS THIS IS CATASTROPHIC FOR SPACE SCIENCE AND ASTROPHYSICS ... GLOBALLY CATASTROPHIC, NOT JUST FOR AMERICANS 🔭🧪 www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

@propublica.org is doing some of the most important work in these times. If you want to feel good about something today, support them: give.propublica.org/give/346423/...

And here's a list of what is at stake at each US agency if the White House's budget proposal goes through: thebradking.com/2025/07/07/r...

Research Cuts in the White House's 2026 Proposed Budget thebradking.com/2025/07/07/r... I used Claude to help me parse the budget, analyze sources (included), and compile the impact on US science. Intro writing and copy edits by me!

AI is pushing the limits of the physical world | MIT Technology Review www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/21/1...

Research Cuts in the White House's 2026 Proposed Budget thebradking.com/2025/07/07/r... I used Claude to help me parse the budget, analyze sources (included), and compile the impact on US science. Intro writing and copy edits by me!

And when these photos appear in textbooks in a couple of decades, they'll tell their grandkids that Everyone Was Doing It and How Were They To Know It Was Wrong.

I spent the morning building a model in Claude to help distill H.B. 1 into bite-sized portions. Here is what the model built, complete with a source list for those who want to either build their own model or fact-check what I've done. thebradking.com/2025/07/04/h...

Cooper, the star of trivia last night

Okay, so here’s a test. Let’s ask him how tariffs work.

The blocked some folks last week after I posted the MIT study didn't say what you think it said. So, we'll try again with a neuroscientist saying it: Is ChatGPT really rotting our brains? nesslabs.com/is-chatgpt-r...

As one of those crazy liberal Appalachians, I gotta say that I'm gonna be a hard pass on a whole lotta Go Fund Me requests. (And before you come for me: My family has been in Appalachia since BEFORE it was Appalachia. We were gunsmiths before the Revolutionary War. And all that jazz.)

That's a world-class lede. What were you doing the day the president attended the opening of an American concentration camp in the Everglades? newrepublic.com/article/1975...

I wrote a little about how I managed projects. Interested to hear what tools you use?!> Project Management with Notion (and Big Help from Second Brain) — Brad King: Writer, Managing Editor, & Strategist thebradking.com/2025/07/01/p...

I wrote a little post about how I use NOTION and GOODNOTES to manage editorial projects at my current job. Hard launch tomorrow. I'm interested in how you track your projects. (I find Mondays, etc., too difficult for non-product-related projects where dependencies are less important.)

HAPPY BOBBY BONILLA DAY TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE! Every year, a sports journalist at every publication knows what story they will file: www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/... @ellesep.bsky.social—love you, mean it!

I'm going to need a few days to process this, but I just had one of those job interview experiences. It included 15 interviews with 32 people, one of whom said Change Management wasn't real, and...

How People Use Claude for Support, Advice, and Companionship www.anthropic.com/news/how-peo...

I'm a diehard, fanatical O-H I-O State fan. I'm also a former athlete and a current coach (not at OSU, obv). I just watched Surviving Ohio State, and I'm disgusted, sad, and angry. It's such a powerful, must-see film.

Not for nothing, but in 1919, 25% of all private sector workers went on strike.

That MIT AI paper doesn't say what you think it says: I'll write more about this later, but for now, you can read Dr. Nataliya Kosmyna's own words.: www.theregister.com/2025/06/18/i... 🧵

“You are being updated this week.” (MM and RS are Media Matters and Rolling Stone)

My hot take (based on my time at Wired, MIT, etc): A whole lotta people who don't write about/understand how to interpret meaning from early science and basic research will misinterpret the MIT study on AI for years to come. The Rorschach test of confirmation bias!

"Only 8% of the 805 miles the state identified for construction is complete, which has cost taxpayers more than $3 billion to date..." www.texastribune.org/2025/06/17/t...

Aqua Man!

Black-Ish "Juneteenth" www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtUc...

I fight with a lotta dudes who don't think Angel isn't going to be a Moses Malone type, but I see it. She's a banger on the inside. She DNGAF. She's not a high percentage shooter, but she'll wear you down. MEBOUNDS indeed: www.nytimes.com/athletic/643...

This is really interesting...

Had 14 job interviews (!) in one day for an editorial ops role. I used Claude to create bio sheets for each interviewer, map the org structure, build stakeholder maps, identify hidden dynamics, and draft 90-day + Year 1 plans. Wrote up a step-by-step guide: thebradking.com/2025/06/17/h...

For decades, US presidents from both parties used a simple formulation for defining a tyrant: a leader who threatens or uses military force to suppress their domestic political opposition. Now we have a president doing just that and conservatives are cheering. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

So we have a US official **in Germany** saying they are “just following orders” in denying Harvard-bound scholars visas despite a federal judge’s restraining order www.masslive.com/news/2025/06...

I need everyone on Normal People internet to know that American Girl Doll Instagram is doing doll protests today. There are tiny t-shirts and signs. AND THEN I realized it's a joint protest with the Barbie ppl, where there are EVEN TINIER SIGNS.

President Donald J. Trump will visit Pittsburgh in July to attend a gathering of leaders in various fields to discuss Pennsylvania and AI. The meeting, dubbed the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, is being held July 15 at Carnegie Mellon University. triblive.com/local/region...