The Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)
I always enjoy my visits to the studio. This recording was a quick one!
More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent them
Imagine a society that engineers its highways so that ordinary people who make mistakes, and even people who intentionally break the law, are less likely to kill people with their cars. On 22 May 1997, the Swedish government presented Bill 1996/97:137 to parliament. It cemented zero deaths as a long-term goal for road fatalities. It reiterated that…
The Darkness and the Light #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 11) A serial killer targets Kira’s former resistance colleagues
Rewatching ST:DS9 In a cave (again with the caves), a pleasant-looking Bajoran monk welcomes guests to a “days of atonement” retreat, and is zapped by a beam of light. In the infirmary, the very pregnant Kira, griping comically that the herbs she’s been prescribed mean sedatives don’t work, learns that Latha, formerly a violent member…
Is AI making us less intelligent?
This morning, after students submitted a homework assignment (a 200-word evidence-based argument paragraph), I asked them to annotate a printout of the instructions (including a rubric), had them peer-review their own submission, and then had them write additional annotations on the assignment sheet, in which they stated what changes they now realized they needed to…
The press lobby is going feral—ignore it
Given that they need to write multiple stories a day, while also appearing on podcasts and 24-hour news channels, lobby journalists cannot plausibly understand policy detail or how financial markets work. It’s also not what they’re good at. Their skillset is to nose around and cause trouble. If you want a scandal covered or to…
January 6th … the board game?
About 20 of us are here in Brooklyn to play a large-scale war game — think Risk — but we’re also each assigned a character, which is a bit like Dungeons & Dragons. We’re told it’s Jan. 6, 2021. We’re given rows and rows of hand-painted mini-figures, a bowl of dice, and a measuring stick showing how far…
Letter to the editor: Setting record straight on Seton Hill newspaper
Here’s my letter responding to an recent article about the future of the student newspaper I advised for over two decades. A pause. The Seton Hill University student paper is on what my English department colleagues described in a recent email as “indefinite hiatus.” At the time, we didn’t know for how long. I was…
Don’t Be a Sucker (antifascist film from 1945)
Full version Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…Jesus Christ SuperstarThe Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibilityMore than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the…Stapler jam during a midterm exam.
Hey there, chaotic world in academia and beyond, could you settle down just a bit so I can mark these papers on August Wilson? Thanks!
Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…Jesus Christ SuperstarFor the Uniform #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 13) Sisko pursues former Federat…Midterm Grades Spring 2025: Posted!The Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibility
I ordered a box of composition books. Low-tech response to AI.
I felt like a capitalist, buying in bulk on the cheap and selling individual books for $2 (about a 20-cent profit, per book, but I’m really rounding up so I don’t have to deal with change). Students will spend time in class annotating printouts and writing in their copybooks. They’ll still do online activities but…
For some reason, I saw a bump in traffic to a page that linked to a “make-your-own-Trump-executive order” page
This sort of thing was funnier back in 2017. Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…Jesus Christ SuperstarFor the Uniform #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 13) Sisko pursues former Federat…The Dog and the Oyster (Aesop Fable)The Begotten #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 12) Kira and…
It Costs So Much to Run ChatGPT That OpenAI Is Losing Money on $200 ChatGPT Pro Subscriptions
I’m also thinking of the cost to the students who have to repeat a course or fail out of a demanding program because they couldn’t AI their way to a passing grade. “People use it much more than we expected,” the cofounder wrote, later adding in response to another user that he “personally chose the price and…
It will be harder to leave Facebook than it was to leave Twitter
It was not that hard to leave Twitter. I removed the app from my phone and followed a lot of journalists and professionals on Bluesky. I still checked Twitter on my laptop, but not every day. Then one day when X asked me for my password to log back in, I decided not to bother.…
Why ABC settled a case they knew they would win — and why the Lincoln Project didn’t
Donald J. Trump sued ABC because a journalist truthfully described Trump on air as a convicted rapist. The legal definition of rape absolutely does cover what Trump was found guilty of doing to E. Jean Carroll. Instead of taking the case to court, where legal experts say they would have won easily, ABC agreed to…
Students are trusting software like this to do their work.
The technology will continue to improve so that that simulated gymnastics videos will look less and less bizarre, but people who can use AI to create flawless gymnastics videos aren’t actually learning gymnastics. No human being will become a better gymnast thanks to a better AI simulation of a gymnastics routine. More convincing AI-generated…
Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.
When I ask my students to use the library database to find scholarly peer-reviewed journal articles, some students stick with the search methods they’re already familiar with, and they submit works cited lists that include articles written by undergraduate interns, or articles from low-value pay-to-publish ecosystems like “Frontiers.” While I don’t read every article students…
There’s No Longer Any Doubt That Hollywood Writing Is Powering AI
Two years after the release of ChatGPT, it may not be surprising that creative work is used without permission to power AI products. Yet the notion remains disturbing to many artists and professionals who feel that their craft and livelihoods are threatened by programs. Transparency is generally low: Tech companies tend not to advertise whose…
Sorry, not sorry. I don’t want such friends.
Back in 2003, shortly after I moved with my wife and two young children to take my current job, I was eager to make new friends and rebuild my social network. One evening, my wife agreed to watch the kids so I could drop by the local branch of a national service organization in which…
Despite its impressive output, generative AI doesn’t have a coherent understanding of the world
[A] popular type of generative AI model can provide turn-by-turn driving directions in New York City with near-perfect accuracy — without having formed an accurate internal map of the city. Despite the model’s uncanny ability to navigate effectively, when the researchers closed some streets and added detours, its performance plummeted. When they dug deeper, the researchers…
Will Journalism Be a Crime in a Second Trump Administration?
Journalism is not a crime. It’s not a crime if it offends the powerful. It’s not a crime if it doesn’t offend them enough to suit you. Yes, journalists make mistakes. Yes, you should take a break from doomscrolling for your mental health. But the First Amendment freedom of the press is crucial to democracy.…