Joining this late because it feels like the right place to be, despite the opportunity/obligation to attend a different webinar where I was being pitched by a startup that wants to do AI-assisted career services for students.
One of my many moments of great disappoint was a friend of a friend online acting excited about the work DOGE was doing because these young men were "geniuses" whose IQ was incredibly high. Empowering these super smart guys was going to lead to great innovation and efficiency. Suuuurrrrre.
For whatever its limitations might have been, I definitely miss the online and in-person community of the Digital Pedagogy Lab these days.
I'm a bit of a gray area moderate on AI, but replicating the dead, be it public figures or family members, is an awful violation. Grief vs. financial exploitation have different motives, but even the former feels like something people need to be counseled against. The latter is capital ghouldom.
I know the entire world is trying to nickel and dime everyone, but I just realized I need a Paramount+ PREMIUM subscription to watch MSU basketball. Steaming has become such a racket.
Trump has done a number of awful things they supported - abusive, aggressive immigration enforcement, sticking it to colleges, eliminating DEI support, slashing government programs.
But many of the same people claimed fighting trafficking was vital and DOJ is clearly in cover-up deflection mode.
Many of my conservative acquaintances claimed that Donald Trump would take sex trafficking seriously. They were excited when the Administration released the first wave of Epstein documents to friendly media. What do they think of Pam Bondi ranting about the Dow's gains when asked about Epstein?
That drive was a mess. Good they didn't bail him out.
A few friends around Kalamazoo College know that my pie-in-the-sky, passion project is an interdisciplinary Senior Seminar titled "Dinosaurs in Culture." Something like this would be an option as a textbook. So cool!
(this class is probably never happening, but still!)
This is why QBs like Namath and maybe even Eli belong. It's "Fame," and that isn't always the same as "best."
Apparently ICE needs to send Jeb Stuart's calvary around the Antifa rear. They'll be helpless if their telegraph lines get cut and the trains can't resupply them.
I don't normally jump into these type of back-and-forths, and the conversations turned weird after a bit. Instead of staying on topic, started asking me about "what happened at Columbia" and an audit.
First, you'll have to answer these three riddles.
Nah, nevermind. Either you can point to evidence that protests across the country are not reflective of local, organic sentiment or you can't. And your links do not. Happy trails.
I'm glad we've reached the ambiguous non-sequitar phase of the exchange. Way more fun that evidence and links.
Tell me where is fancy bred, in the heart or in the head?
You said, "Most of these protests are NOT ORGANIC." I read your links and have yet to see this supported there with evidence.
What evidence is there that this community space is influencing events in Minneapolis and elsewhere? How?
You think activists in Minnesota, who would be protesting and outraged anyway, are holding Manhattan-made, foreign influenced signs? That's the scandal?
The two publicly available articles offer no tangible evidence of funds being directed towards protests (the core of the claim), outside of the availability of a community organizing space in Manhattan. If that's the extent of it, that's weak evidence in light of the large allegations being made.
A homemade protest sign reading Nosotros Venceremos and a hand drawn peace hand gesture.
It's funny the article used this picture. Clearly graphic design like this is inaccessible without massive networks of foreign capital.
The City Journal one has more information for sure, but it really amounts to "there is a shared space in Manhattan where activists can work" and "some of their people show up at things."
That is a far cry from "all these protesters in Minneapolis and elsewhere are paid to be there."
I read your link in an attempt to be open minded. I hope the Washington Examiner investigation they're repackaging has actual evidence because this short piece doesn't describe money going anywhere. Just that these groups exist and have money.
Two things about the altered Nekima Levy Armstrong photo:
1. It's social and political meaning is 100% as horrible as everyone is saying.
2. I know tons of "independents" and "moderates" will insist it's no big deal.
The last part is as dangerous as those who delight in it ghoulishly.
I added the Stylus add-on to Firefox and am now fascinated with experimenting with CSS options on the fly.
I love how that "no ideology but his own" line Weiss wrote about Thiel must sound dynamic, macho, and bold to them, but it's so cringe and pathetic.
Sometimes you have to stop agonizing over the nuances of word choice and tone and just send the damn email. However, you sometimes have to make an unnecessary Bluesky post first.
This is exactly right. The idea that this violence will only come for people who "deserve" it is vital for Trump supporters. They believe, sometimes correctly, that they will be spared because they're the good, law-abiding, proper keepers of United States membership.
I know it's cool on Bluesky to be dismissive of anyone using an LLM as ignorant or worse, but I'm reminded how casually and widely people are using them as part of their daily life. Just happened to me at the barbershop with the barber and his customer, both regular users of GenAI in various ways.
Don't know that this is directed at AI, but as an instructor that is one of my biggest pain points - don't include things in your writing that you don't understand or can't defend. That's fundamental to knowing whether a claim is credible. LLMs love big, declarative statements that sound "smart."
What is this "zone" that you speak of?
All the power and coding of Microsoft, and I'm fascinated by what its products CAN'T do. Easily take Attendance in a Teams class? Good luck! Loading all members of a Team into the Scheduling Assistant should be one button. Not there. Can Copilot find an available time for everyone to meet? Nope.
