I met with AI data labelers in Kenya who are organizing their colleagues to fight the brutal working conditions and horrible pay given to the workers at the "bottom of the AI supply chain." They believe the NDAs they've signed are unenforceable so are speaking out:
www.404media.co/ai-is-africa...
From the NY Times in 1932: Benjamin de Casseres to write a magazine by, and entirely about, himself. "It will be a magazine of aggressive individualism," he added, somewhat unnecessarily.
A bright spot in education news: one of our local high schools just brought back its student newspaper after 16 years away.
In a hotel room, a brick wall that has obviously had a huge hole repaired
Pretty sure the Kool-Aid man stayed in this hotel room once
Important piece of history to the modern redistricting wars: Democrats spent a decade trying to ban partisan gerrymandering and were told each time to pound sand. This language in a 2021-2022 bill had the support of 50 out of 50 Senate Democrats — and 0 Republicans. Rs killed it.
Google has a "Results About You" setting to remove pages with your private info (email, phone, ss#, etc) from their search results. And they really don't seem to publicize it.
It’s at myactivity.google.com/results-abou...
H/t to this helpful BBC article about it:
The newly renovated libraries are fantastic. This is the N Portland library, which is worth checking out just for the art.
I can report that if you call the Congressional switchboard right now, a very nice lady will likely answer and direct you to the voicemail for your senators and rep. 202-224-3121
She answered all three times I called. Doesn't seem like they're that busy right now.
"England remains an anomaly across the world, as the only country apart from Chile where water, a natural resource, is owned by private companies for profit."
Scotland's public, Wales is nonprofit. England is still stuck in this miserable relic of Thatcherism, and there's no good reason why.
When there are no consequences for the last bad thing, you'll get a next worse thing.
"They were looking at “Gugusse and the Automaton,” a long-lost film by the iconic French filmmaker George Méliès... The 45-second film, made around 1897, was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot."
Just epic work by a scammer using AI to impersonate authors:
“Later that day Markovits received another fan letter written in essentially the same style and format, Harbaugh said. This one was from ‘Thomas Pynchon.’ “
Not only are neither of the US's hospital ships on the way, they're not even at sea:
"Both vessels are in a shipyard in Mobile, Ala...The Comfort is undergoing repairs that are expected to be completed in April, while the Mercy is in the middle of a 1-year maintenance period that began last July."
My least favorite kind of driver is Guy Creeping Forward While You're in the Crosswalk. Take that gas pedal and cram it, friend.
Painting of an urban wintry scene, with a hill at back featuring numerous sled riders
I've always loved the background of Jacob Lawrence's 1943 painting "City College is Like a Beacon Over Harlem," with its snow-covered hill featuring numerous sled riders at play
And the Daily Bruin is controlled by student govt, not by UCLA. This... might not shut the story up the way admin imagines.
1888 ad from the New Jersey Trade Review for "Newark Chips, a Delicious Addition to the Breakfast Table."
Delicious NEWARK CHIPS
douglas adams was our most accurate futurist
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Fun fact: this guy's "Intellectual Freedom" center was established last year by GOP legislative fiat, overruling a NO vote by OSU's faculty senate and over rhe objections of the faculty union.
OSU faculty were also excluded from deciding who got hired.
www.aaup-osu.org/post/aaup-os...
Scoop: Top FDA official Vinay Prasad overruled the agency’s reviewers when he refused to accept Moderna’s application for a new influenza vaccine, STAT has learned.
www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...
That's right, I will make you a fortune by selling novelty AM radios, Y-splitter cables with a faint buzz, weird multifunction karaoke megaphones, and store brand batteries you need to give your phone number for
Aside from the morals, I worry a lot about the safety of these. Warehouses are designed with the assumption that the number of people in them are very low (which is fire marshals crack down on nightclubs in warehouses). A fire in a warehouse where people aren't free to leave is a nightmare scenario.
Macbeth: SHIT
The absolute cheapest literary high back then, of course, was a mass-market paperback *with the cover ripped off*, purchased for a quarter apiece from some marginally shady dude at a flea market.
The drugstore pbk market was HUGE. Years ago, after I wrote a Times story on liquor & cigarette ads running in paperbacks (!) in 60s & 70s, I heard from an old Madison Ave exec who did the ad buys. Biggest volume bookstore in the US, he said, was the Rexall Drugs at Grand Central Station.
🎁 link:
Ian McKellen performs “The Strangers’ Case” speech from “Sir Thomas More” on Colbert.
The Washington Post laid off hundreds of the country's most dogged reporters today, who did indispensable work holding the powerful accountable at home & abroad. We are heartbroken.
Please share with anyone who cares about the future of journalism:
www.gofundme.com/f/standing-t...
Kids making AI a byword for fake is *delightful*
